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The major European indices are closing mixed to start the new trading week. A snapshot of the closing levels shows:

• German DAX, +0.11%
• France’s CAC, -0.18%
• UK’s FTSE 100 -0.27%
• Spain’s Ibex, +0.07%
• Italy’s FTSE MIB -0.08%.

As London/European traders come to the conclusion of the trading day, the US major indices are all negative, and near session lows:

• Dow industrial average -149 points or -0.31% at 47805.
• S&P index -22.51 points or -0.33% at 6848.18.
• NASDAQ index -50 points or -0.21% at 23527.

The small-cap Russell 2000 is bucking the trend and trading up 9.73 points or 0.39% at 2531.12.

Some losers today include:

• Netflix (NFLX): 95.73, down 4.50 (-4.49%)

• Boston Scientific (BSX): 93.29, down 4.22 (-4.33%)

• Lululemon Athletica (LULU): 182.34, down 7.67 (-4.04%)

• Intel (INTC): 39.76, down 1.65 (-3.99%)

• Tesla (TSLA): 438.38, down 16.62 (-3.65%)

• Baker Hughes (BKR): 47.60, down 1.60 (-3.25%)

• Fortinet (FTNT): 84.18, down 2.74 (-3.15%)

• Macy’s (M): 22.17, down 0.68 (-2.98%)

• Nike (NKE): 64.15, down 1.71 (-2.59%)

• Intuit (INTU): 656.63, down 17.00 (-2.52%)

• Stryker (SYK): 354.70, down 9.32 (-2.56%)

• Lennar (LEN): 121.16, down 2.75 (-2.22%)

• Airbnb (ABNB): 121.72, down 2.61 (-2.10%)

• Live Nation Entertainment (LYV): 136.42, down 2.91 (-2.09%)

• Palo Alto Networks (PANW): 194.74, down 4.10 (-2.06%)

Some winners today include:

• Paramount Skydance (PSKY): 14.37, up 1.00 (+7.48%)

• Celsius (CELH): 43.68, up 1.62 (+3.85%)

• Robinhood Markets (HOOD): 136.43, up 4.48 (+3.40%)

• Ciena Corp (CIEN): 208.31, up 6.61 (+3.27%)

• Corning (GLW): 88.47, up 2.50 (+2.91%)

• Chewy (CHWY): 34.40, up 0.93 (+2.76%)

• Broadcom (AVGO): 400.90, up 10.67 (+2.73%)

• Micron (MU): 243.43, up 6.21 (+2.62%)

• Strategy (MSTR): 182.71, up 3.73 (+2.08%)

Looking at the US debt market, yields are higher:

• 2-year yield 3.604%, +4.0 basis points
• 5 year yield 3.767%, +5.2 basis points
• 10 year yield 4.181%, +4.3 basis points
• 30 year yield 4.825%, +3.3 basis points

looking at other markets:

• Crude oil is trading down $0.85 at $59.20.
• Gold is trading down $1.50 at $4195.77.
• Silver is trading down $0.33 at $57.95.
• Bitcoin is trading up $42 and $90,441, but is up from Friday’s close of $89,348

This article was written by Greg Michalowski at investinglive.com.

The BLS is reporting that

• It will not publish the October PPI report
• The November report will be published on January 14, 2026
• They will also not produce October 2025 import and export price reports
• The November import export price indices will be published January 15.

The BLS announced earlier that the CPI data for November will be released on December 18, 2025. The October CPI was canceled.

This article was written by Greg Michalowski at investinglive.com.

• According to a filing, the Ellison family (PSKY) and RedBird committed to backstop 100% of the USD 40.7bn equity capital required for the deal.

• The structure with Ellison family eliminates any potential CFIUS (foreign investment) review risk for the proposed WBD transaction.

• If the proposed deal is terminated under certain circumstances, Paramount (PSKY) would pay WBD a USD 5bn termination fee.

• If the deal is terminated under other circumstances, WBD would pay a termination fee of approximately USD 2.9bn.

• Tencent (0700 HK) will no longer participate as a financing partner in the transaction.

• New debt financing agreements were entered into with Bank of America (BAC), Citi (C), and Apollo (APO) for up to USD 54bn in principal.

• Jared Kushner is said to be involved in helping finance the bid for Warner Brothers Discovery (WBD), according to Axios citing a regulatory filing.

• This follows Paramount Skydance’s (PSKY) all-cash tender offer to acquire WBD for USD 30/shr, valuing the transaction at USD 108.4bn.

Pres. Donald Trump has expressed significant reservations about the proposed Netflix–Warner Bros. Discovery deal, saying it “could be a problem” due to the size and market share the combined company would command. While he praised Netflix co-CEO Ted Sarandos as a “fantastic man” and called Netflix a great company, Trump emphasized that the scale of the merger raises real antitrust concerns. He also stated that he intends to be personally involved in the regulatory vetting process, signaling that the deal will face unusually high executive-level scrutiny. Despite his positive comments about the companies themselves, Trump made clear that there is no guarantee the transaction will move forward, underscoring uncertainty around whether such a large consolidation could win approval under his administration. The news that his son-in-law Jared Kushner is involved on the Paramount Skydance deal, of course raises an eyebrow.

This article was written by Greg Michalowski at investinglive.com.

A 7.2 magnitude earthquake is reported off of northern Japan. More specifically off of the coast of Aomori Prefecture.

There are Tsunami warnings for parts of northern Japan with maximum 3 m high tsunami expected after the earthquake

This article was written by Greg Michalowski at investinglive.com.

• Paramount Skydance (PSKY) launched an all-cash tender offer to acquire Warner Bros Discovery (WBD) for $30 per share.

• The proposed deal values WBD at $108.4 billion.

• The offer covers 100% of WBD, including its global networks segment.

• Paramount has taken the offer directly to WBD shareholders.

• Equity financing will be backstopped by the Ellison Family and RedBird Capital, with additional debt fully committed by Bank of America, Citi, and Apollo.

• Paramount argues the Netflix transaction provides WBD shareholders with inferior and uncertain value.

• The offer is not subject to any financing conditions.

• Paramount will submit a premerger notification filing today under the Hart-Scott-Rodino Antitrust Improvements Act of 1976.

David Ellison (CEO of Paramount Skydance) is on CNBC touting his offer in relation to Netflix saying that the all-cash is a game changer.

• Says that he believes Pres. Trump is in favor of competitiveness
• if this deal is aloowed to pass it is anticompetitive and horrible for Hollywood
• We believe that what we offer is better for Hollywood and better for the customers
• Absolutely it would be beneficial for Hollywood.
• We will bring 30 movies per year to the big screen

This article was written by Greg Michalowski at investinglive.com.

• RBA preview: Will the central bank switch to a hawkish stance?
• ECB’s Kazimir: I see no reason to change rates in the coming months
• Nifty 50 ends the day lower but rebounds from key support ahead of the close
• Eurozone December Sentix investor confidence -6.2 vs -7.0 expected
• ECB’s Rehn: Sticking to full optionality on rates, full freedom of action
• Market Outlook for the week of 8th – 12th December
• Switzerland November SECO consumer confidence -34 vs -34 expected
• Germany October industrial production +1.8% vs +0.4% m/m expected
• ECB’s Schnabel: Comfortable with bets that next move will be a rate hike
• FX option expiries for 8 December 10am New York cut
• Japanese Finance Minister Katayama: Recently seeing one-side, rapid moves
• What are the main events for today?

It’s been a pretty boring session in terms of data releases and newsflow. The main highlight was a Bloomberg article on ECB’s Schnabel recent remarks in which she said that she was fine with rate hike bets in 2026.

The interview in question was from last week and Schnabel is a known hawk, so it’s not exactly some fresh stuff. Nonetheless, we’ve been seeing the ECB and some other central banks focusing more on upside inflation risks recently. The main 2026 risk for markets could very well be hawkish central banks.

In the markets, the EUR spiked on Schnabel’s remark but gave up the gains pretty quickly. We are now very close to the last FOMC decision of the year, and I wouldn’t be surprised to see some defensive hedging into it given the hawkish risks.

In FX, we haven’t seen notable changes but the CAD remains the strongest currency following the incredibly strong Canadian employment report on Friday. Notably, the JPY continues to weaken despite the incoming BoJ rate hike. The Japanese officials clearly don’t like this price action with the Finance Minister Katayama today lamenting again about “one-sided, rapid moves”.

The positive risk sentiment continues to hold with US equities trading higher in pre-market and bitcoin adding to yesterday’s gains. In the bond market, things are quite different. US yields continue to grind higher and getting closer to the upper bound of the 3-month range. The latest upside might have been in response to the Canadian data as the market might fear the overeasing risk.

This article was written by Giuseppe Dellamotta at investinglive.com.

• Prior -7.4
• Full report here

This is better than expected and continues to point to stabilisation.

The agency noted: “While the sentix economic data has improved for the fourth time in a row in some regions, the overall index for the
eurozone continues to hover slightly in negative territory. Although it rose by 1.2 points in December, with the current
situation at -16.5 points and expectations just above zero, the eurozone economy can at best be said to be stabilising.”

“The eurozone is therefore finding it difficult to see the global momentum perceived by sentix survey participants for
almost all other regions and countries also having an effect in Euroland. Towards the end of 2025, the reason for this
lies with Germany, the largest eurozone economy. Recessionary forces continue to have an impact here, which is
spreading to the entire eurozone.”

“Looking ahead, however, there are significant differences of opinion between private and professional investors. The latter
are noticeably more optimistic that a global upturn will ultimately lift all boats. Private investors do not share this optimism
at all. Are the professionals labouring under a misconception because they are focusing too much on the stock indices?
What do private investors perceive that makes them so sceptical? In any case, this polarisation is unique in sentix’s history.
Inflation is also coming back into focus as a topic. Here, investors expect increasing pressure on the bond markets, which
is unlikely to give central banks more leeway to support the economy”.

This article was written by Giuseppe Dellamotta at investinglive.com.

• Prior -37

This is not a market moving release. This index has been deeply in the negative since 2022, although it rebounded from the trough made in October 2023 at -52.5. The SNB meanwhile is not expected to do anything in terms of monetary policy.

This article was written by Giuseppe Dellamotta at investinglive.com.

• Prior +1.3%
• Industrial production Y/Y +0.8% vs -1.0% prior

This is not a market-moving release but it’s a nice beat on estimates and another confirmation of a pick up in economic activity. Industrial production has been recovering from the May 2024 trough at -7.7% and it’s now back into positive territory.

ECB’s Schnabel has been mentioning the possibility of a rate hike in 2026. If things keep improving and inflationary pressures intensify, we might indeed see a rate hike in 2026, and potentially from other central banks too.

This article was written by Giuseppe Dellamotta at investinglive.com.

• Concerned about FX moves
• Important for currencies to move in stable manner reflecting fundamentals
• Will take appropriate action on FX if necessary

The market got used to these kind of comments by now. I guess the lack of meaningful JPY strength despite an upcoming BoJ rate hike is making them even more concerned.

This article was written by Giuseppe Dellamotta at investinglive.com.

• Japan Q3 GDP revised -2.3% annualized vs -2.0% expected
• What’s the big contrarian trade for 2026? Commodities according to BofA
• China posts another massive trade surplus
• IBM nears deal to buy Confluent at below the IPO price
• Macron threatens tariffs on China “in the coming months” due to trade surpluses
• Japan October current account +2833b vs +3109B expected
• Trump on restarting trade talks with Canada: We’ll work it out
• Japan October labor cash earnings +2.6% vs +2.2% prior

Markets:

• Gold up $13 to $4209
• US 10-year yields flat at 4.13%
• WTI crude oil up 12-cents to $60.20
• S&P 500 futures up 0.2%
• JPY leads, CAD lags

The US dollar was generally softer to start the week after Friday’s strength. The yen was stronger despite the softer GDP data as the market begins to zero in on a BOJ hike next week. The moves overall for far are soft.

The headline on Macron and China probably didn’t get as much attention as it deserves, maybe because the market sees it as a hollow threat given the internal politics of the EU. Trump was fairly positive on Canada but there was little movement in CAD, similarly to when he broke off talks.

Gold is sold to begin the week while bitcoin has traded in a wide range already from $89-92K. It’s rebounded towards the top of that range after some selling as Asian markets opened.

This article was written by Adam Button at investinglive.com.

Gold prices are up 60% year to date and Bank of America’s Michael Hartnett is out with a bold call on hard assets, tagging energy as the ultimate contrarian play.

Hartnett, the Chief Investment Strategist at BofA, is looking past the current tech euphoria and digging into the beaten-down sectors. In his latest note, he argues that the macro backdrop is shifting in favor of commodities.

He believes the Trump administration’s economic policy will continue to press the economy to run economy hot. He labels the “despised oil/energy” sector as the best contrarian trade for 2026.

A 60% rally in oil prices in 2026 would take WTI to $96 per barrel.

This article was written by Adam Button at investinglive.com.