Most U.S. stocks are rising on Thursday, but a drop for Oracle is holding Wall Street back as investors question whether its big spending on artificial-intelligence technology will pay off.

The S&P 500 fell 0.4% in early trading and pulled a bit further from its all-time high, which was set in October. The Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 233 points, or 0.5%, as of 9:35 a.m. Eastern time, and the Nasdaq composite was 0.7% lower.

Oracle was one of the heaviest weights on the market and sank 14.5% even though it reported a better profit for the latest quarter than analysts expected. Its 14% growth in revenue came up just short of expectations.

Doubts also remain about whether all the spending that Oracle is doing on AI technology will produce the payoff of increased profits and product

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