US Stock Market Today: Oracle's 7% Surge Pushes Tech-Heavy Nasdaq Up 1%

Oracle's stock zoomed 7% in early trade on Friday, as the software giant is part of the group of American investors to whom China's ByteDance is selling its TikTok US unit.

The surge in Oracle's stock, along with an uptick in the shares of AI hot-bet Nvidia, pushed Nasdaq Composite higher in the first hour of trade.

By 10:15 am (EST), Nasdaq was up 1.01% at 23,229.726. The broader index, S&P 500 was up 0.75% at 6,825.34, whereas the Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 0.68% to 48,277.74.

After hitting a high of $194.75, Oracle pared some of the gains to trade 5.9% up at $190.65 apiece at 10:18 am (EST). Nvidia was trading 2.7% higher at $178.85.

Riding the momentum from its strong quarterly results, Micron Technology also emerged as a key gainer in early trade, rising by around 7%. This comes after the stock recorded a 10% climb on Thursday.

Meanwhile, among the major laggards in early trade was Nike, whose stock plunged 9%. The decline came after the sports apparel-maker posted a decline in revenue from its sale in China during the second quarter.

Gold prices remained firm after the US markets opened, as the precious metal was trading 0.22% higher at $4,342.49 an ounce at 10:25 am (EST) in the US spot market. Spot silver saw a sharper climb, trading 1.42% higher at $66.42 an ounce.

Crude oil prices improved, with Brent futures trading 0.45% higher at $60.09 a barrel, whereas the US West Taxes Intermediate futures traded 0.79% higher at $56.44 a barrel.

Bitcoin, the largest traded cryptocurrency, continued its upward climb. The token was trading 3.52% higher at $88,369.27 at 10:30 am (EST).