What happened last week…
Netflix (NFLX) has won the bidding war for Warner Bros. Discovery’s (WBD) film studio and streaming service. The enterprise value of the deal is $82.7 billion. The acquisition is expected to close in 12 to 18 months but will face regulatory scrutiny over antitrust concerns. According to CNBC, the Trump Administration is believed to view the transaction with “heavy skepticism.”
According to a report from Bloomberg, Meta Platforms (META) CEO Mark Zuckerberg could reduce the budget for its metaverse unit by as much as 30% as part of the company’s annual budget planning for 2026. The company has been investing more heavily into its AI superintelligence unit, which includes the hiring of several high-profile individuals.
Elsewhere on the AI front, Apple (AAPL) announced that John Giannandrea, the company’s artificial intelligence leader, will retire in the spring of 2026 after being with the company since 2018. Taking over that position is “renowned AI researcher” Amar Subramanya, who once worked for Alphabet (GOOG) and Microsoft (MSFT).
The ADP employment change figure was reported as -32,000. The jobs data that was originally scheduled to be released on Friday, but was delayed due to the government shutdown, will now be released on December 16.
The manufacturing PMI for November was 48.2. The non-manufacturing PMI for November beat expectations (52.1) as it increased to 52.6 from 52.4. It is the highest level since February 2025.
Happening this week…
On Wednesday, the Federal Open Market Committee will make its final interest rate decision of the year. The committee has lowered rates in back-to-back meetings, bringing current rates to a range of 3.75% to 4.00%. According to the CME FedWatch Tool, as of December 5, there is an 87.2% probability that rates will be reduced by 25 basis points.
The inflation report that was initially scheduled to be released on December 10 has been moved to December 18. The report was delayed due to the now-resolved government shutdown.
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- The Rockline Team
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