Corporate America grapples with huge oil price swings
FT News Briefing
Forhecz Topher
4.4 • 1.3K Ratings
🗓️ 11 March 2026
⏱️ 12 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Oracle’s shares climbed 9 per cent on Tuesday after the database group posted better than expected earnings, and we discuss how American businesses are navigating soaring energy prices. Plus, the higher costs to insure tankers traversing the Strait of Hormuz, and the FT’s Antoine Gara explains why investors are ditching private credit funds.
Mentioned in this podcast:
Oracle shares rally on strong revenue forecast from AI data centres
Soaring fuel prices expected to cast long shadow across US economy
Lloyd’s of London says it will still insure ‘basically anyone’ in the Gulf
Investors ditch private credit funds on rising worries over bad loans
Retail investors shun private credit funds after Blue Owl gating
Note: The FT does not use generative AI to voice its podcasts
Today’s FT News Briefing was hosted and edited by Marc Filippino, and produced by Fiona Symon, Victoria Craig, Sonja Hutson and Saffeya Ahmed. Our show was mixed by Kent Militzer. Additional help from David da Silva. Our executive producer is Topher Forhecz. Cheryl Brumley is the FT’s Global Head of Audio. The show’s theme music is by Metaphor Music.
Read a transcript of this episode on FT.com
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Good morning from the Financial Times. |
| 0:04.0 | Today is Wednesday, March 11th, and this is your FT News briefing. |
| 0:08.3 | The good times seem like they're going to keep rolling for Oracle, and corporate America is bracing for higher for longer oil prices. |
| 0:15.9 | Plus, the private credit market is a mess right now, but it could be worse. |
| 0:19.8 | The positive is that all of this risky lending on Wall Street is outside of the banking system |
| 0:25.0 | and isn't immediately something that has spilled over into the broader market. |
| 0:31.4 | I'm Mark Filipino, and here's the news you need to start your day. |
| 0:48.8 | Oracle shares surged after the bell yesterday on a better than expected earnings report. |
| 0:53.7 | The database company co-founded by billionaire Larry Ellison said revenue last quarter jumped 22% from the |
| 0:56.2 | year prior to more than $17 billion. Oracle also boosted its revenue forecast for next |
| 1:02.3 | fiscal year. Both top line numbers beat Wall Street expectations. Net income largely met forecasts, |
| 1:08.8 | while capital expenditures increased more than 50%. |
| 1:11.7 | Oracle has been trying to compete with rivals to supply computing power to AI companies, |
| 1:16.4 | but it's faced growing criticism on its reliance on OpenAI as a customer and its big increase in borrowing. |
| 1:23.6 | For example, long-term debt last quarter, which includes operating leases, rose to $143 billion. |
| 1:36.3 | The price of Brent Crude was all over the place yesterday. It briefly dropped to just above $80 a barrel before spiking back up to 90. The back and forth was over |
| 1:46.3 | a social media post from Chris Wright, who leads the U.S. Energy Department. He posted on X that the Navy |
| 1:51.9 | escorted an oil tanker through the Strait of Hormuz. That would be a big deal, because the |
| 1:56.5 | street transports 20% of all the world's oil. And safety through it has been a top concern for |
| 2:02.0 | shippers. We'll dig more into that later in the show. And the thing is, shortly after posting |
| 2:07.2 | the announcement on X, Wright deleted it. And then the White House denied the Navy ever escorted a ship |
| 2:13.0 | through the strait. Now, all these wild swings and oil prices are not great news for corporate America. It's |
... |
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