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Oracle’s rally briefly made cofounder Larry Ellison the world’s richest person, ahead of Elon Musk

Oracle pulled off one of the biggest rallies in its stock market history, as shares soared 36% on Wednesday after the company laid out a cloud business growth forecast that left analysts blown away.

What also went vertical, alongside the stock, was cofounder Larry Ellisons fortune.

According to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, Ellisons net worth jumped by a record $89 billion to $383 billion, the biggest single-day gain ever, briefly overtaking Elon Musks fortune and making him, for a moment, the worlds richest person. Musk reclaimed the top spot by the end of Wednesday.

Yesterday’s remarkable gain means that Larry Ellison has now seen his estimated wealth increase by $191 billion year to date. That’s the equivalent of making $752 million a day, more than $522 thousand a minute, or $8,703 per second.

On Tuesdays earnings call, Oracle projected its cloud revenue would climb 77% this year to $18 billion, then to a whopping $144 billion by fiscal 2030 — more than 14x last years haul.

Musk has held the No. 1 spot for much of the year, Bloomberg reports, though Tesla’s shares are down 7.7% year to date amid mounting EV competition and Musks political controversies. Just last week, Teslas board proposed an unprecedented $1 trillion pay package for Musk.

Go Deeper: Oracle’s insane cloud infrastructure forecast is giving shades of Nvidia’s data center business

On Tuesdays earnings call, Oracle projected its cloud revenue would climb 77% this year to $18 billion, then to a whopping $144 billion by fiscal 2030 — more than 14x last years haul.

Musk has held the No. 1 spot for much of the year, Bloomberg reports, though Tesla’s shares are down 7.7% year to date amid mounting EV competition and Musks political controversies. Just last week, Teslas board proposed an unprecedented $1 trillion pay package for Musk.

Go Deeper: Oracle’s insane cloud infrastructure forecast is giving shades of Nvidia’s data center business

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Oil settles Friday at highest level since start of war

US oil prices moved higher in afternoon trading Friday, sapping strength from the stock market as they posted their highest close since the start of the Iran war.

After another day where the Strait of Hormuz was essentially closed to global tanker traffic, US futures for West Texas Intermediate settled up 3.1% at $98.71 a barrel for an 8.6% weekly gain, per Dow Jones data.

American officials have discussed using the US Navy to escort tankers through the narrow waterway between Iran and Oman, but have said plans for such convoys are not ready yet. However, it is unclear if military convoys would bring an end to the war-related dislocations in the oil market.

“It could help,” Tom Liles, senior vice president of upstream research at energy consulting firm Rystad, told Sherwood News in a recent interview. “It could also go in a lot of different directions if a Navy ship is hit or if a tanker is hit.”

American officials have discussed using the US Navy to escort tankers through the narrow waterway between Iran and Oman, but have said plans for such convoys are not ready yet. However, it is unclear if military convoys would bring an end to the war-related dislocations in the oil market.

“It could help,” Tom Liles, senior vice president of upstream research at energy consulting firm Rystad, told Sherwood News in a recent interview. “It could also go in a lot of different directions if a Navy ship is hit or if a tanker is hit.”

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Memory stocks rebound off last weeks losses

Memory stocks Micron, Sandisk, Western Digital, and Seagate Technology Holdings rose again Friday, putting these crucial providers of chips for AI inference work on track for big weekly gains after last week’s steep losses following the outbreak of war with Iran.

There’s no obvious trigger for the move higher for these shares this week, other than a bit of a recovery in the AI trade more broadly — AI beneficiaries like IT cable and connections maker Amphenol and custom chip and networking company Marvell Technology clawed back some gains this week — perhaps due Oracle’s earnings earlier, and some mean reversion to boot.

Micron is due to report earnings after the close of trading on Wednesday, with the company catching a couple price target hikes this week, including one from Wedbush on Friday.

Sandisk is something of a different story, as its enormous gains over the last 12 months — roughly 1,200% — have made it a momentum play beloved by the retail crowd.

It was up about 20% this week at around 11 a.m. ET. And its nearly 170% gain this year keeps the stock on top of the S&P 500, in terms of price performance.

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