{"id":64514,"date":"2026-07-09T14:08:14","date_gmt":"2026-07-09T18:08:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www2.stockmarketwatch.com\/stock-market-news\/s-musk-praises-anthropic\/64514\/"},"modified":"2026-07-09T14:08:14","modified_gmt":"2026-07-09T18:08:14","slug":"s-musk-praises-anthropic","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www2.stockmarketwatch.com\/stock-market-news\/s-musk-praises-anthropic\/64514\/","title":{"rendered":"S&#038;P Downgrades Oracle as Fed Officials Signal Liquidity Shifts; Musk Praises Anthropic"},"content":{"rendered":"<h2>Key Takeaways<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>S&amp;P Global Ratings downgraded Oracle Corp. (<a href=\"\/stock\/ORCL\">ORCL<\/a>) to &#39;BBB-\/A-3&#39;<\/strong> from &#39;BBB\/A-2&#39;, citing rising business risks and a significant weakening in free operating cash flow.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Elon Musk publicly conceded that Anthropic is the current leader in AI<\/strong>, praising their <strong>Mythos<\/strong> and <strong>Fable<\/strong> models while committing to fair competition through his companies.<\/li>\n<li><strong>U.S. officials announced the launch of the first Israel-Lebanon &quot;pilot zone&quot;<\/strong> within days, marking a critical step in the implementation phase of the regional security framework.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Federal Reserve officials Lorie Logan and Roberto Perli advocated for voluntary central clearing<\/strong> to improve the efficiency of the Fed&#39;s open market operations and liquidity tools.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2>Oracle Downgraded Amidst AI Spending Surge<\/h2>\n<p>S&amp;P Global Ratings lowered the credit rating of <strong>Oracle Corp. (<a href=\"\/stock\/ORCL\">ORCL<\/a>)<\/strong> to <strong>&#39;BBB-&#39;<\/strong>, the lowest investment-grade tier, with a stable outlook. The agency highlighted that Oracle\u2019s aggressive push into <strong>AI infrastructure<\/strong> has led to a <strong>free operating cash flow deficit<\/strong> that is expected to persist as capital expenditures ramp up. Analysts noted that while the company&#39;s cloud backlog is strong, the <strong>$100 billion-plus debt load<\/strong> and high customer concentration present significant credit risks.<\/p>\n<h2>Musk Reverses Stance on Anthropic Leadership<\/h2>\n<p>In a notable shift, <strong>Tesla (<a href=\"\/stock\/TSLA\">TSLA<\/a>)<\/strong> CEO Elon Musk admitted he was &quot;clearly wrong&quot; about <strong>Anthropic<\/strong>, labeling the startup the current leader in the AI sector. Musk specifically cited the performance of the <strong>Mythos<\/strong> and <strong>Fable<\/strong> models as superior to existing competitors. He further emphasized his commitment to open competition, referencing <strong>SpaceX\u2019s<\/strong> policy of launching rival satellite systems and <strong>Tesla\u2019s<\/strong> open-sourcing of patents as evidence that he would not use his platforms to unfairly disadvantage Anthropic.<\/p>\n<h2>Middle East Framework Enters Implementation Phase<\/h2>\n<p>A senior U.S. official confirmed that the <strong>Israel-Lebanon framework<\/strong> has moved into the execution stage, with the first <strong>&quot;pilot zone&quot;<\/strong> scheduled for launch in the coming days. Additional zones are currently being mapped out as part of a phased plan to restore sovereignty and manage security along the border. This development follows a June 26 agreement aimed at ending the state of war and facilitating the gradual withdrawal of Israeli forces from designated areas.<\/p>\n<h2>Fed Officials Target Market Resilience<\/h2>\n<p>During a workshop at the <strong>New York Fed<\/strong>, Dallas Fed President <strong>Lorie Logan<\/strong> and SOMA Manager <strong>Roberto Perli<\/strong> discussed the future of market liquidity. Logan emphasized that <strong>centrally cleared standing repos<\/strong> would make the Federal Reserve&#39;s liquidity tools more attractive and effective for market participants. Perli added that the Fed&#39;s <strong>reserve management purchases<\/strong> remain flexible and are not on a pre-set path, though he warned that money market conditions could tighten due to an increase in <strong>U.S. Treasury bill issuance<\/strong>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Key Takeaways S&amp;P Global Ratings downgraded Oracle Corp. (ORCL) to &#39;BBB-\/A-3&#39; from &#39;BBB\/A-2&#39;, citing rising business risks and a significant [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":50383,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"rank_math_schema_Article":[],"rank_math_focus_keyword":[],"rank_math_description":[],"financial_data_references":[],"stock_symbols_mentioned":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[5012],"tags":[4,33,338,3703,3709,5016,5267,6854],"class_list":["post-64514","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-breaking-news","tag-tsla","tag-msft","tag-orcl","tag-ai","tag-fed","tag-israel","tag-economy","tag-lebanon"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www2.stockmarketwatch.com\/stock-market-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/64514","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www2.stockmarketwatch.com\/stock-market-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www2.stockmarketwatch.com\/stock-market-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www2.stockmarketwatch.com\/stock-market-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www2.stockmarketwatch.com\/stock-market-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=64514"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www2.stockmarketwatch.com\/stock-market-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/64514\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www2.stockmarketwatch.com\/stock-market-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/50383"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www2.stockmarketwatch.com\/stock-market-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=64514"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www2.stockmarketwatch.com\/stock-market-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=64514"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www2.stockmarketwatch.com\/stock-market-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=64514"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}