Intel Returns to Profitability + Oracle's $38B Data Center Debt Deal | The Rundown Oct 24, 2025

Public.com presents The Rundown, your daily market update in under 10 minutes. My name is Zaid Admani, and today is Friday, October 24th. In today's episode, we'll tell you why the latest inflation report is sending the markets higher. We'll also recap earnings from Intel and tell you about the latest moves from Oracle that is making me nervous. Then stick around to the end of the show to find out about the futuristic shoes that Nike is developing and why I won't be buying them. We got a great show for you today. Let's go. Stocks got a nice boost on Thursday with the S&P 500 climbing 0.6% and the NASDAQ jumped nearly 1%. Tech stocks drove this rally once again. Big names like NVIDIA, Oracle, Amazon, and Tesla were all up more than 1%. We actually broke down Tesla's earnings on yesterday's show, so make sure you guys check that out if you missed it. Now, this morning, we finally got some economic data from the government. Remember, all the economic data has been delayed due to the government shutdown, but the Bureau of Labor Statistics released the September CPI report, and according to that report, inflation in September was up 3% year over year, which is actually lower than the 3.1% that economists were expecting. Now, just for some context, inflation in August was up 2.9% year over year. So inflation is creeping up, but it's not out of control, which I think likely means the Federal Reserve will cut interest rates at their meeting next week. In fact, according to the CME FedWatch tool, there is a 99% chance of a rate cut. And I think that's giving the markets a boost this morning. I'm looking at the pre-market right now. It is green across the board. And if this rally sticks, stocks could be sitting at record highs to end the week. And just looking ahead to next week, I mean, it is going to be stacked. We are getting earnings from big tech companies like Microsoft, Meta, Google, Amazon, and Apple. There's also the Fed meeting, which I just mentioned. And there's a meeting between President Xi of China and President Trump. And the week wraps up with Halloween on Friday. So we are in for a huge week. You guys definitely don't want to miss an episode next week. So make sure you guys are subscribed to the podcast. Maybe even hit that notification button so you guys are notified as soon as an episode goes up. let's run through some headlines starting with Intel. Intel just reported its first earnings since the U.S. government took a 10 percent stake in the company becoming its top shareholder and that investment seems to be paying off so far Intel said they are back to profitability posting a 4.1 billion dollar in net income it was Intel's first profitable quarter since the end of 2023 revenues in Q3 also jumped three percent to 13.7 billion dollars easily topping analysts estimates of 13.2 billion Intel's turnaround seems to be driven by a rebound in PC demand the company said that the demand for their chips is now outpacing supply which is a good problem to have Intel analysts said PCs are still in demand these days but they are on top of that Intel has been aggressively cost cutting and doing layoffs to help stabilize the company after a brutal 2024, where the company reported its first annual loss in nearly four decades. You know, Intel's new CEO, Pat Gelsinger, who took over the company earlier this year, has been making a lot of moves this year. He got that investment from the US government earlier this year. On top of that, Nvidia and SoftBank also invested in Intel. And I think most importantly, all that investment has rebuilt investors' confidence in the company. In fact, Intel stock is up more than 90% so far this year, outperforming peers like NVIDIA and AMD. Intel's survival has become a matter of national security at this point because right now all the advanced AI chips are manufactured in Taiwan by TSMC. So the US government, along with companies like NVIDIA, want Intel to thrive so they have an alternative option to TSMC. And while it's great that Intel is headed in the right direction, they still face a ton of challenges, specifically with their foundry business, which is what manufactures chips. They still are way behind companies like TSMC when it comes to manufacturing cutting edge AI chips. So we'll see if all this investment from the US government and NVIDIA helps them get closer to TSMC's capabilities. Overall, though, it does seem like Intel has turned a corner and investors are jumping on for the comeback ride. Intel stock is up around 5% this morning in reaction to the earnings, and the stock hit 52-week highs today. Let's keep it rolling and talk about Oracle. Oracle is reportedly working with a group of major banks to raise $38 billion in debt to fund new AI data centers. If this deal goes through, it would be the largest debt deal ever when it comes to data centers. According to a report by Bloomberg, this $38 billion would be split across two huge projects. $23 billion will go towards a data center being built in Texas and 15 billion will go towards a data center being built in Wisconsin. And both sides are being developed by Vantage data centers, which will operate the facilities for Oracle's AI deal with OpenAI. And this is where it starts getting a little confusing. It's still not clear who will actually hold the debt on their books, whether it's going to go on Oracle's books or Vantage's books. I would think that banks would want the debt to be held by a large company like Oracle, but we'll have to see for more details to come out. The bigger takeaway for me, though, is that debt is now entering the picture when it comes to this AI infrastructure built out, and that is kind of concerning. See, up until recently, most of the spending on AI was coming from the cash flow of big tech companies. Now, all the money that Meta was making from selling ads on Instagram, Zuck was taking that money and putting it towards building data centers. Same is being done by Microsoft and Google. But now Oracle is coming out and borrowing money to put towards AI. And that raises the stakes because if the AI boom doesn't pan out, if the demand never materializes for all these AI data centers, that's going to hurt a lot more financially. So I'm going to keep my eye on how much debt these companies start taking out to build these AI data centers, because that's usually how the bubble ends up bursting. And when these companies start taking out too much debt and there's not enough demand to pay back the loans, that's when the bubble can go pop and it can drag down the entire market with it. Let's talk about some stocks making moves today. Ford stock is rising this morning after the automaker posted strong third quarter earnings. The revenues were up 9% in Q3 to $50.5 billion, which is a record high for the company and profits more than doubled to $2.4 billion thanks to record truck and SUV sales. And you know, Ford would have pulled off the earnings trifecta, but they had to trim their full year outlook because of a fire at a supplier's plant. A few weeks ago, a fire occurred at an aluminum supplier plant in New York, which forced Ford to slow production of its F-Series pickup trucks, which is their biggest moneymaker. The company says this fire and disruption will impact up to a billion dollars in profit next year. So it's a pretty big deal. In fact, Ford's CFO said the company actually plan to raise their full year guidance before the fire. But overall, though, Ford is coming off a solid quarter with strong sales and profits. And moving forward, they're expecting the impact of tariffs to be $1 billion less than what they expected before, thanks to Trump's new tariffs rules for automakers. So investors are pretty excited about that. Shares of Ford are up more than 4% this morning in reaction to the earnings. Now, on the flip side, shares of Deckers Outdoors are dropping this morning after the company behind Hoka's and Ugg's provided weaker sales outlook for 2026. Now, Q3 was pretty good for the company. They beat on both profits and revenues last quarter, but management warned that consumers are being more cautious when it comes to pricing and they expect tariffs to hurt demand for its Hoka and Ugg brands going forward. Now, Decker's makes most of its shoes in Vietnam, so they have to pay tariffs on that. As a result, shares are down more than 10% this morning in reaction to the earnings. And zooming out, I mean, it's been a pretty tough year for the company overall. The stock has lost more than half its value in 2025. Let's wrap the show with a fun fact. Nike is working on motorized sneakers that'll literally help you walk and run faster. Nike is calling this development Project Amplify, and they're working with a bionic footwear company called Defy. The shoes will have a battery-powered motor that'll give you an extra push with every step. It kind of reminds me of those electric bikes that require less pedaling. Nike says the goal is to help casual athletes and even people with mobility issues to move more easily. And these shoes are still in early development and won't hit stores until at least 2028. Now, my initial reaction when I saw this was like, yeah, that sounds pretty cool. Maybe I'd finally be able to dunk wearing these shoes. But then on second thought, I don't know if I want like smart sneakers on my shoes that I have to charge every night. And this also opens up a can of worms. Like, is Nike going to paywall some of the features on the shoes? Maybe the walk boost feature will be free. But if you want a super boost feature where you can dunk, you have to pay like a monthly subscription. I don't want to go down that road, but I don't know. Maybe I'm in the minority here. Let me know in the comments if you guys would be down to buy shoes like this. Well, all right, guys, that's the rundown for today. that's the rundown for this week hope you guys enjoyed today's episode if you did and you have like five extra seconds consider giving us a five star rating on apple spotify youtube wherever you listen to your podcasts and if you are listening on spotify don't forget to vote in today's spotify poll leave us a comment on spotify all that engagement really does help us out and it helps other people find the show thank you guys so much for listening watching and commenting shout out to mike and connor for all the work behind the scenes and we'll see you guys back here tomorrow for the deep dive