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Happy Wednesday. If you’re a fan of commercial real estate or Netflix’s Owning Manhattan (or both), check out Ryan Serhant’s conversation with CNBC’s Diana Orrick.
Stock futures prices are almost flat this morning. The three major indexes ended yesterday’s trading little changed.
Here are five important things investors need to know to start their trading day.
1. Digital footprint
U.S. Energy Secretary Chris Wright and Venezuelan Interim President Delcy Rodríguez (not pictured) speak to the media after attending a meeting marking the highest-level U.S. visit in nearly 30 years to focus on energy policy to an OPEC member country, as the U.S. conducts its first on-site assessment of the oil industry it aims to help rebuild, in Caracas, Venezuela, February 11, 2026.
Leonardo Fernández Viloria | Reuters
Yesterday, Energy Secretary Chris Wright shared, then deleted, a post on X saying the U.S. Navy had escorted a tanker through the Strait of Hormuz. Crude oil prices plummeted amid expectations for the normalization of crude oil trading. Problem: There was no escort.
Here’s what you need to know:
“At this time, the U.S. Navy is not escorting tankers or ships,” spokeswoman Caroline Leavitt told reporters shortly after the post was deleted. She said she had not spoken to Wright about the post. A Department of Energy spokesperson later said staff had “incorrectly captioned” the posted video. U.S. crude oil and Brent crude oil prices ended yesterday down more than 11%, paring some of their losses after Wright’s post was revealed to be inaccurate. Oil prices are rising this morning after the UK said three ships were collided off the coast of Iran and one in the Strait of Hormuz. The group is considering releasing oil from its reserves. Meanwhile, stock futures are little changed as investors await February’s Consumer Price Index report, due at 8:30 a.m. ET. Follow us here for the latest live market information.
2. Look to the future
An Oracle Corp. sign on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) on Wednesday, December 31, 2025 in New York, USA.
Michael Nagle | Bloomberg | Getty Images
shares of oracle Shares rose 10% this morning after the company beat Wall Street’s quarterly expectations and raised its outlook for fiscal 2027.
The company announced that cloud revenue rose 44% to $8.9 billion in the third quarter. Additionally, Oracle’s remaining performance obligations have increased by more than four times from a year ago to more than $550 billion. The software vendor said it has the necessary capital to support its growth.
Oracle CEO Clay Magowyk named Cerebras as a leading maker of artificial intelligence hardware alongside chip giants on a call with analysts. Nvidia and AMD. As CNBC’s Jordan Nobe points out, this notable mention comes as Cerebras seeks to go public after withdrawing its IPO application last year.
3. Issues with the Fed
Kevin Warsh, former US Federal Reserve Board member, speaks at the Monetary Policy Conference at the Hoover Institution, Stanford University, in Palo Alto, California, USA, on May 9, 2025.
Ann Safir | Reuters
Kevin Warsh, President Donald Trump’s pick to lead the Federal Reserve, could be at the helm of the central bank at a perilous time. As one economist told CNBC’s Jeff Cox, Warsh faces a “perfect storm.”
Warsh will have to decide whether to focus on curbing inflation or supporting growth in the labor market. The decision could become even more difficult as energy prices could rise amid the U.S.-Iranian conflict.
But Warsh’s Senate confirmation could still be an uphill battle. Sen. Thom Tillis said yesterday that he will not lift the blockade on Fed nominees until the criminal investigation into outgoing Chairman Jerome Powell is resolved. “This is not a people issue, it’s a process issue,” said Tillis, who spoke with Warsh late Tuesday.
4. Line in the sand
In this illustrated photo, the Anthropic logo is displayed on a smartphone screen. An AI company is suing the Pentagon after the Pentagon moved to blacklist the company following disagreements over safeguards that limit the use of AI systems in surveillance and autonomous weapons.
Jonathan Ra | Null Photo | Getty Images
Big tech companies are taking sides in the battle between Anthropic and the Department of Defense.
microsoft Coming to Anthropic’s defense yesterday, a judge said in a court filing that the Pentagon should issue a temporary restraining order barring it from designating the AI startup as a supply chain risk.
on the other hand, alphabet It aims to strengthen its relationship with the Department of Defense. As CNBC’s MacKenzie Sigalos reports, Google’s parent company announced yesterday that it will be rolling out the ability to build custom AI agents on the Department of Defense’s Enterprise AI Portal.
5. Scraping suit
Indonesia – 10/14/2025: In this photo illustration, the Amazon logo is displayed on a smartphone screen with the Amazon Web Services logo in the background. (Photo illustration by Algi Febri Sugata/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images)
Sopa Images | Light Rocket | Getty Images
Amazon yesterday won a temporary restraining order blocking Perplexity’s AI browser Comet from accessing its site.
The e-commerce giant filed a lawsuit late last year accusing Perplexity of concealing its own AI agents that were scraping Amazon’s site. U.S. District Judge Maxine Chesney said Amazon presented “strong evidence” that Comet accessed Amazon’s website without permission.
Meanwhile, CNBC’s Annie Palmer confirmed that Amazon held an internal meeting yesterday focused on the recent outages. Internal documents initially attributed the incident to AI-powered generative production changes, but those references were removed before the meeting.
daily dividend
Yesterday, the average cost of a gallon of gasoline reached its highest level since 2024, according to AAA. Here are the numbers you need to know:
Average price per gallon yesterday: $3.54 Increase from 1 month ago: 21%
—CNBC’s Spencer Kimball, Sean Conlon, Pia Singh, Dan Mangan, Jordan Nove, Annie Palmer, Ashley Caputo and Mackenzie Sigalos contributed to this report. Josephine Rozzelle edited this version.
