Top stories for the morning: Fed cuts rate, Meta shows points, Moody's sees Oracle risks

The Federal Reserve cut rates by 0.25 bps to 4-4.25% and hinted at two more easings before the end of the year, attributing the decision to risks to the labor market with continued inflation pressures. Meta unveiled new models of smart glasses, including Ray-Ban Display with display and neuroblade for $799 and Oakley Vanguard sports for $499, and Netskope is preparing for an IPO with a $7.3 billion valuation. On these and other topics - in our review of key events by the morning of September 18.

The U.S. Federal Reserve lowered its key rate by 0.25 p.p. to a range of 4-4.25% and signaled two additional cuts before the end of the year, CNBC writes. The decision came amid slowing job growth and persistent inflation pressures. Only new council member Stephen Miran, who pushed for a more aggressive cut, opposed the decision.

Fed Chairman Jerome Powell said policy is now in a "more neutral" stance, but noted the unusually sharp cooling of the labor market. According to the Fed's published projections (the so-called dot plot), the views of committee members are divided: nine expect another cut this year, ten expect two, and one opposes any new steps.

The political backdrop heightened the drama surrounding the meeting, with Donald Trump continuing to press the Fed for accelerated easing, while the appointment of Miran and the attempted firing of Lisa Cook raised questions about the regulator's independence. Meanwhile, US unemployment hit 4.3%, the highest since 2021, and job growth was revised significantly downward.

Mark Zuckerberg at the Meta Connect conference in California unveiled Meta Ray-Ban Display, the company's first consumer glasses with a built-in screen and neuro-bracelet for gesture control, Reuters reports. The $799 device will go on sale Sept. 30. The glasses allow you to receive notifications, respond to messages and answer calls, while retaining the familiar Ray-Ban design. However, analysts believe that the high price may deter buyers, and consider the novelty as an intermediate step to more advanced glasses Orion, scheduled for launch in 2027.

In addition, Meta showed the $499 Oakley Meta Vanguard sporting Garmin and Strava integration, up to nine hours of battery life, and dust and moisture protection. The company also updated its Ray-Ban Meta (Gen 2) line for $379 - with double the runtime and an improved camera.

The presentation took place amid pressure on Meta over issues of child safety in social networks and competition in the field of AI. Zuckerberg said that the glasses will be "the ideal form of a personal supermind," but experts note that for mass success, the company will have to convince users that the benefits of the technology justify its cost.

Cybersecurity company Netskope offered shares at $19 apiece - at the top end of its price range - and raised $908 million ahead of its IPO, CNBC reported. Trading under the ticker NTSK starts Thursday on Nasdaq, with a market capitalization of $7.3 billion. The growing interest in public offerings coincided with the revival of the IPO market after a multi-year pause amid high inflation and interest rates, the channel notes.

The company, founded in 2012 in California, serves more than 4,000 customers in 90 countries. In the first six months of 2025, its revenue grew to $328 million and its annual recurring revenue grew 33% to $707 million. The loss for the same period amounted to $170 million. Netskope's investors include Accel, Iconiq and Lightspeed Venture Partners.

The IPO comes amid activity in the cybersecurity sector: Google bought Wiz for $32 billion, Palo Alto Networks acquired CyberArk for $25 billion, and competitors CrowdStrike and Zscaler are actively expanding their portfolios through deals. Analysts believe that interest in Netskope is fueled by the growth of threats and the use of AI in the industry, the channel points out.

AI chip startup Groq has announced that it has raised $750 million in investment at a post-money valuation of $6.9 billion - above the previously expected $6 billion, TechCrunch writes. In total, the company, founded by ex-Google TPU developer Jonathan Ross, has raised more than $3 billion. A year ago, its value was estimated at $2.8 billion.

Groq develops its own LPUs (language processing units) rather than GPUs, positioning them as "inference engines" optimized for running AI models quickly and cheaply. The products are available in the cloud and as server racks for enterprise customers and are compatible with open source versions of models from Meta, OpenAI, Google and others. The company claims a better price-to-performance ratio than Nvidia.

Groq now serves more than 2 million developers, up from 356,000 a year ago. The round was led by Disruptive, and was joined by BlackRock, Neuberger Berman, Deutsche Telekom Capital Partners, and existing investors Samsung, Cisco, D1 and Altimeter.

Moody's Ratings noted potential threats associated with Oracle's massive cloud capacity contracts for artificial intelligence, including a $300 billion agreement with OpenAI, Reuters writes. Despite recognizing the "enormous potential" of Oracle Cloud Infrastructure, the agency maintained a negative outlook on the rating without changing the rating itself (Baa2).

The main risk, according to analysts, is related to Oracle's high dependence on a limited number of large customers. In addition, the company's debt burden is expected to grow to a level 4 times higher than EBITDA and negative free cash flow in the short term.

Oracle said its contracted revenue in the cloud business will exceed $500 billion, with much of the growth driven by the OpenAI deal. Moody's notes that the scale of Oracle's data center construction is comparable to the world's largest project financings.

- Japan's broad Topix index was up 0.6 percent.

- The benchmark Nikkei 225 was up 1.4 percent.

- In South Korea, the Kospi index was adding 1.20%, while the Kosdaq small-company index was up 1.2%. - Australia's S&P/ASX 200 was down 0.6%.

- Futures on the S&P 500 were up 0.5 percent, the Nasdaq 100 was up 0.7 percent and the Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 0.3 percent.

This article was AI-translated and verified by a human editor