5 Things to Watch on
March 11, 2026

Markets are trending lower despite February's retail inflation report landing exactly in line with expectations, showing headline inflation up +0.3% MoM and +2.4% YoY, with core CPI, which excludes food and energy, also matching forecasts at +0.2% MoM and +2.5% YoY. Notable within the report were sharp jumps in fuel oil and utility gas prices, largely driven by the cold-weather snap that sent Americans reaching for their thermostats.

Amazon (AMZN) is looking to raise between $37B and $42B in debt across as many as 11 tranches, managed by Goldman Sachs (GS), J.P. Morgan (JPM), and Citigroup (C), drawing roughly $126B in bids for the U.S. portion alone. The capital raise funds their $200B in planned 2026 capital expenditures, driven largely by AI, chips, robotics, and satellite initiatives. AMZN joins Oracle (ORCL), Alphabet (GOOGL), and Meta (META) in tapping debt markets to finance AI-fueled spending ambitions.

Oracle (ORCL) is up more than +9% in premarket trading after beating expectations for its fiscal third quarter, reporting EPS of $1.79 (vs. $1.70 estimate) and revenue of $17.2B, up +22% YoY. Cloud revenue was a standout, growing +44% to $8.9B, with infrastructure revenue surging +84% and remaining performance obligations skyrocketing +325% to $553B. For Q4, ORCL guided for revenue and EPS above analyst estimates, and raised its fiscal 2027 revenue outlook to $90B.

AeroVironment (AVAV) is down over -10% in premarket trading after a messy Q3 where revenue of $408M and EPS of $0.64 both missed consensus, dragged down by a $151M goodwill impairment in its Space division following a Space Force stop-work order. The charge collapsed gross margin to 24% from 38% and widened the net loss to $156.6M, overshadowing a record $1.1B funded backlog. Management cut FY2026 revenue guidance to $1.85B-$1.95B, leaving investors focused on execution risk over the bullish backlog narrative.

America First Refining will build a new oil refinery in Brownsville, Texas, backed by India's Reliance Industries (RELIANCE) in what Trump called a "$300B historic deal," the largest in U.S. history. The facility will process 168,000 barrels per day of U.S. shale oil, with construction potentially beginning as early as Q2 2026. RELIANCE, controlled by Mukesh Ambani and operator of the world's largest refining complex in India, signed a binding 20-year offtake agreement to purchase and distribute the American-produced energy exclusively.