Stock Indexes Fall for 2nd Straight Day; Tech Shares Remain Under Pressure; Nvidia, Microsoft Decline on Anthropic Deals

Warner Bros. Discovery Stock Pops on Report Paramount, Middle Eastern Sovereign Wealth Funds Prepping $71B Bid

22 minutes ago

Warner Bros. Discovery (WBD) shareholders evidently like what they read in Hollywood trade publications.

Shares of Warner Bros. Discovery popped 5% after Variety reported, citing sources, that David Ellison-led Paramount Skydance (PSKY) was preparing a $71 billion bid for the media and entertainment giant along with three Middle Eastern sovereign wealth funds.

“The bid is being largely backed by the Ellison family (which owns 100% voting control in Paramount Skydance) with involvement from three Arab countries: Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund (PIF), the Qatar Investment Authority (QIA) and the Abu Dhabi Investment Authority (ADIA), the sources said,” Variety reported. “In addition, Gerry Cardinale’s RedBird Capital is backing the bid.”

In September, The Wall Street Journal reported that Paramount was preparing a cash bid for all of Warner Bros. Discovery. Last month, WBD said it was initiating a strategic review amid interest from multiple suitors.

The Journal reported last week that Comcast (CMCSA) and Netflix (NFLX) were interested in WBD’s movie and television studios and HBO Max streaming service, but not its cable networks.

Shares of Paramount, Comcast, and Netflix also were higher in recent trading.

Home Depot’s Earnings Miss Estimates. Here’s What It Says About the Housing Market

1 hr 8 min ago

Home Depot (HD) shares slid Tuesday after the home improvement retailer posted weaker-than-expected quarterly earnings and trimmed its full-year profit outlook, citing a sluggish housing market along with a lack of storms.

The stock was down nearly 4% in recent trading, bringing its year-to-date losses to about 11%. 

Home Depot posted adjusted earnings per share of $3.74 for the third quarter, down 4 cents from the same time a year ago and well below the analyst consensus compiled by Visible Alpha, though revenue came in above estimates at $41.35 billion. Comparable store sales rose just 0.2%, while analysts were looking for 1.4% growth.

“Our results missed our expectations primarily due to the lack of storms in the third quarter, which resulted in greater than expected pressure in certain categories,” CEO Ted Decker said, adding that an expected boost in demand failed to materialize. “We believe that consumer uncertainty and continued pressure in housing are disproportionately impacting home improvement demand,” he said.

Home Depot lifted its full-year sales forecast to about 3% growth, up from a projection of 2.8% last quarter, with recently acquired distributor GMS expected to provide about $2 billion in sales. However, the company also said it now anticipates adjusted earnings per share to fall about 5% year-over-year, compared to an expected 3% drop previously, given continued pressure from “ongoing consumer uncertainty and housing pressure,” among other things.

Read the full article here.

–Aaron McDade

Check Your Streaming Bills. ‘Streamflation’ Could Be Costing You More Than You Think.

1 hr 39 min ago

If you haven’t checked how much your streaming services cost in a while, you might be spending more than you think.

You can thank “streamflation.” Many of the country’s biggest entertainment companies have hiked subscription prices in recent months, with Netflix (NFLX), Warner Bros. Discovery’s HBO Max, Disney’s (DIS) Disney+ and Hulu, Comcast’s (CMCSA) Peacock and Apple (AAPL) TV all raising prices this year or announcing plans to do so.

Paramount (PSKY) became the latest last week, saying that the cost of Paramount+ will go up in the first quarter of 2026.

Some streamers have introduced ad-supported versions of their plans at lower rates, offering a way for users to save, with some signs those plans have grown in popularity. Last month, analytics firm Comscore said it found viewing on ad-supported tiers jumped 16 percentage points year-over-year through August for Disney+, and 11 percentage points for Netflix. About 45% of Netflix’s viewing time came through its ad-supported tier, up from 34% last year, Comscore found.

Some viewers are using free streaming services that are fully ad-supported. Comscore found that viewing time on those services rose to 1.8 billion hours from 1.3 billion a year ago.

“Once positioned as a lower-cost alternative, ad tiers are now a central pillar of platform strategy, and audiences are responding,” Comscore wrote.

Read the full article here.

–Aaron McDade

A Cloudflare Outage Knocked Out Web Services Like X, ChatGPT, and More Today

2 hr 32 min ago

Cybersecurity firm Cloudflare’s network buckled early Tuesday, cutting off access to widely used websites such as X and Spotify (SPOT), as well as government authorities like New Jersey Transit.

Cloudflare (NET) was working to restore service after a “spike in unusual traffic” at 6:20 a.m. ET triggered errors, company spokeswoman Jackie Dutton told Investopedia. A number of impacted sites appear to be back online, including those of X, Ikea, Alphabet’s (GOOG) YouTube, and UPS (UPS).

But around 9:30 a.m ET, some websites were still inaccessible or displayed an error message that referenced the outage, including ChatGPT, the College Board, and New Jersey Transit. The company didn’t provide precise information about how many clients were impacted by the outage.

Read the full article here.

–Sarina Trangle

Klarna Stock Sinks Following First Results Since IPO

4 hr 3 min ago

Buy now, pay later firm Klarna’s first results since its IPO mostly came in better than analysts had expected, and its current-quarter outlook also topped estimates. However, it came up short in one key metric, and its shares are dropping Tuesday morning.

Klarna (KLAR), which went public in September, reported a third-quarter net loss of $0.25 per share on revenue of $903 million, both better than the analyst consensus compiled by Visible Alpha. Gross merchandise value (GMV), or the total amount of products bought with Klarna’s services, beat estimates at $32.7 billion, as did its number of active users at 114 million.

Further, Klarna guided for fourth-quarter revenue of $1.065 billion to $1.080 billion and GMV of $37.5 billion to $38.5 billion, both better than analysts’ estimates.

However, the company reported an adjusted operating loss of $14 million, while consensus called for an $11.3 million loss.

Shares were down roughly 10% less than an hour after the opening bell and have lost about 30% of their value since the IPO, although analysts have remained bullish on the stock.

Here’s How Much Traders Expect Nvidia Stock to Move After Wednesday’s Earnings

5 hr 18 min ago

Nvidia is set to report its latest quarterly results after the closing bell Wednesday, with traders expecting a big move in the AI chipmaker’s stock.

Options pricing suggests traders expect Nvidia (NVDA) shares could move nearly 7% in either direction by the end of the week. A move of that size from Monday’s close near $187 could help the shares recover some of their recent losses to return to last week’s levels around $199, or pull them down to about $174, a level not seen since September.

In recent quarters, Nvidia’s earnings have tended to be a sell-the-news event, despite a string of record-breaking results. In all but one of the most-recent four quarters, the chipmaker’s stock finished the week lower than its levels heading into the event.

With expectations riding high ahead of the earnings, and results from rival Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) and other AI favorites indicating investors may be harder to impress this season, Nvidia could face an increasingly difficult bar to clear.

Read the full article here.

–Kara Greenberg

More Americans Found Work After a Sluggish Summer, Delayed Labor Report Is Expected to Show

5 hr 53 min ago

A long-delayed report on job growth Thursday is likely to show the job market bounced back in September after a dismal summer.

The Bureau of Labor Statistics is set to publish its monthly report on job creation and unemployment for September on Thursday, six weeks after its regularly scheduled release. The report was one of many official statistics delayed by the government shutdown that ended last week. It will indicate whether and to what extent the job market has recovered after a significant slowdown over the majority of the summer.

U.S. employers likely added 51,000 jobs in September, according to a consensus forecast cited by economists at Bank of America. That would be more than double the 22,000 added in August, but still relatively few by recent standards: The economy added an average of 147,000 jobs each month in the 12 months through April, for example.

The unemployment rate is expected to hold steady at 4.3%, a relatively low rate by historic standards, according to the consensus forecast.

The report will demonstrate how well the job market is weathering several headwinds, including uncertainty created by President Donald Trump’s increased tariffs on most U.S. trading partners and the growing use of artificial intelligence.

It will also influence policymakers at the Federal Reserve, who will meet in December to set the nation’s benchmark interest rate. Members of the Fed’s policy committee are split on whether to cut rates to boost the economy and job market, or keep them higher for longer to push inflation down to the Fed’s target of a 2% annual rate.

Read the full article here.

–Diccon Hyatt

Trump’s $2,000 Tariff Check Plan Could Face Key Test in Congress

6 hr 5 min ago

President Donald Trump’s proposed tariff rebate checks may have a bumpy road to becoming a reality.

Over the weekend, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said Trump’s proposed $2,000 tariff “dividend” check would require congressional approval. However, a key member of the House of Representatives said there would be a “robust debate” over what to do with the tariff revenue.

In a social media post last week, Trump floated the idea of a $2,000 “dividend” check for Americans to be paid for by revenue from the sweeping tariffs he’s instituted this year. 

However, House Majority Leader Steve Scalise said in a televised interview on Sunday that legislators want to gain a better understanding of how much money the tariffs are generating. Before the government shutdown, the Treasury Department reported $95 billion in new tariff revenue through August.

With Trump negotiating new agreements that lower tariff rates, Scalise also said the revenue from tariffs may not be sustainable in the long term.

While new tariffs have generated a significant amount of revenue, it’s unclear whether it will be enough to fully cover Trump’s $2,000 check proposal, which Bessent said could be limited to families making $100,000 or less.

Read the full article here.

–Terry Lane

Topgolf Callaway Brands to Sell Majority 60% Stake in Topgolf Unit

6 hr 35 min ago

Topgolf Callaway Brands (MODG) said before the bell that it was selling a 60% stake in its Topgolf and Toptracer business to to private equity funds managed by Leonard Green & Partners, confirming a recent report.

Last Friday, Topgolf Callaway shares jumped after The Wall Street Journal reported that the company was in talks with Los Angeles-based Leonard Green to sell Topgolf in a deal that would value its high-tech driving ranges unit at about $1 billion. In a press release Tuesday, Topgolf Callaway said the deal—which is expected to close in the first quarter of 2026—values Topgolf at approximately $1.1 billion, and that it expects to receive approximately $770 million in net proceeds.

Just over a year ago, Topgolf Callaway—which has a market cap of roughly $2 billion—said it intended to split back into two companies, with Callaway focused on making golf clubs.

“As we considered various alternatives to separate Topgolf, including a potential spin-off transaction, we received interest from a number of parties,” Topgolf Callaway Brands CEO Chip Brewer said. “After a robust process and a thorough evaluation of a range of alternatives, we believe this sale is the best outcome for our shareholders, as well as our employees and other stakeholders. This transaction is highly attractive in that it provides the Company with both significant proceeds and substantial upside in the continued growth of Topgolf.”

Upon closing, Topgolf Callaway plans to change its name to “Callaway Golf Company” and change its ticker symbol to “CALY.” Shares would continue to trade on the New York Stock Exchange.

Shares slipped 1% before the bell but entered the session up 38% this year. Still, they are down about 60% since the company formed in March 2021.

Stock Futures Slip After Major Indexes Slide

7 hr 14 min ago

Futures contracts tied to the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 0.5%.

S&P 500 futures were down 0.4%.

Nasdaq 100 futures declined 0.4%.