This week was full of new data, offers and drama. The Warner Bros-Netflix-ParamountSkydance bidding war unfolded with the latest developments on December 17, likely ending the bidding race when WBD’s board formally rejected Paramount’s hostile bid to acquire the media giant. It continues to bet on Netflix, focusing on the future of entertainment with more than 300 million subscribers on the platform.
Then IBM went ahead and bought Confluent for $11 billion. Read more here. How can we overlook the recent IPO of medical provider Medline, which broke records by raising $6.26 billion and saw its shares rise more than 40% on the first day of trading on Nasdaq?
But before we dig deeper, let’s look at how major indices and commodities performed this week. Most of the week was bearish; However, as the holidays approached, the market also rejoiced.
Remember, however, that the market, unlike some offices, is not closed. It will take a short break, closing early on Christmas Eve at 1:00 pm and remaining closed on December 25, a welcome respite from constantly monitoring stock movements.
The S&P 500 closed up 0.06% this week, barely recovering from losses from earlier in the week.
The Nasdaq Composite rose 0.3% this week, slightly after all the tech sell-off.
The Dow Jones posted a 0.7% drop and the small-cap Russell 2000 was down 0.9% this week.
Oilwhich had hit a record low of $55 per barrel on Tuesday, recovered some of its losses on Thursday and Friday, but still posted a 1.4% drop for the week.
This comes after US troops rounded up Venezuelan ships carrying oil from the country after President Donald Trump ordered a “total and complete blockade of all sanctioned oil tankers entering and leaving Venezuela,” in a Truth Social post.
This blockade is a broader strategy to put administrative pressure on Nicolás Maduro, the president of Venezuela, whom the United States accuses of drug and human trafficking, the Wall Street Journal reported.
Natural gas showed a positive turn after several days of declining prices and was up 2.9% on Friday, but remains 2.4% lower for the week.
Silver, which has now seen a 130% gain so far this year, posted another new high on Friday, now at $67.385 an ounce, up 8.6% for the week.
This week we welcome the month of November. nonfarm payroll datawhich did not show significant changes compared to September. On Thursday, the Consumer Price Index was reported at 2.7% for the 12 months ending in November, down from 3% reported in September.
However, if you look at the report, a significant portion of the data is missing due to the government shutdown that lasted throughout October and early November.
Related: Cooling jobs report resets Fed’s bid to cut interest rates
klarna, A major proponent of AI and advancement, it had previously discussed introducing additional payment options for its users. On Friday, it partnered with Coinbase to add stablecoin funding to its existing wide range of traditional funding sources. Klarna shares rose 0.9% on Friday and Coinbase rose 2.5%.
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President Donald Trump finally made the decision he had cannabis stocks coming and going last week. Cannabis has now been reclassified from a Schedule I to a Schedule III drug, allowing for more medical research and greater future opportunities. There will definitely be more interested investors now with greater possibilities for the company’s growth.
While some stocks saw an early rise, as of today’s close, most of the best-known cannabis stocks had declined significantly.
Tilray fell 9.6%
Trulieve fell 0.1%
Constellation Brands fell 1.3%
Curaleaf Holdings down 5.5%
Green Thumb Industries up 2%
As the week draws to a close, a new deal has emerged between President Trump Trump Media and Technology Group (DJT)also known as TMTG, and TAE Technologies, a private fusion energy development company. This all-stock transaction, valued at more than $6 billion, will result in the world’s first publicly traded merger company.
FurtherEconomic Analysis:
The merger is expected to be completed in 2026, and will create a public company in which shareholders of both companies will own 50% of the capital.
“Fusion power plants are expected to provide affordable, abundant and reliable electricity that would help the United States win the AI revolution and maintain its global economic dominance,” the official statement read.
TMTG shares rose 8.3% on Friday following the news.
Speaking of deals leading to significant stock gain, ByteDance tiktok finally signed a deal to sell its US entity, which will now be controlled by a group of US investors, Axios reported.
The deal, which will close on January 22, will see OracleSilver Lake and MGX, an Abu Dhabi-based investment firm, collectively own 45% of the US entity. Oracle shares rose 6.6% following the news, as it will be a security partner once the deal closes.
Some good news considering Oracle’s shares fell 14% this month after news came that one of its major backers, Blue Owl Capital, will now not proceed with its original plan to invest in Oracle’s Michigan data center plan to serve OpenAI, the Financial Times reported.
Courserathe go-to place for everything related to education, announced a merger with Udemy in an all-stock transaction, with an equity value of the combined company of $2.5 billion at closing on December 16.
Analysts had mixed reactions to the merger.
JPMorgan upgraded Coursera to Overweight from Neutral, with a $12 price target, while maintaining a Neutral rating and $8 price target on Udemy.
UBS lowered its price target on Coursera from $11 to $9, maintaining a Neutral rating.
Canaccord downgraded Udemy to Hold from Buy with a $7 price target following the merger.
The merger sent shares of both companies even higher on Wednesday, with Udemy seeing a 12.7% rise at the close. However, on Friday both closed with a drop of more than 5%.
Related: CPI inflation report sparks data backlash
This story was originally published by TheStreet on December 20, 2025, where it first appeared in the Latest Business and Market News section. Add TheStreet as a preferred source by clicking here.
