🧾MARKET RECAP → Stocks closed lower on Monday as investors prepared for the last Federal Reserve meeting of 2025 later this week.

💥 TRUMP WARNINGS, PARAMOUNT STRIKES BACK → The Netflix (NFLX)-Warner Brothers (WBD) deal faces serious headwinds as Trump signals antitrust concern and Paramount Skydance (PARA) returns with a hostile all-cash takeover offer, reviving the bidding war — and injecting fresh uncertainty into Hollywood’s biggest shake-up in years.

🍎 COOK’S 2026 CRUNCH TIME → Apple (AAPL) needs a hit in AI and hardware to reaccelerate growth, putting Tim Cook under unusual Wall Street pressure heading into 2026.

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For the week beginning December 08, 2025

⚠️ Antitrust alarms from the White House: Donald Trump publicly said he’ll be involved in reviewing Netflix’s (NFLX) planned acquisition of Warner Bros. Discovery (WBD), warning the mega-deal’s combined market share “could be a problem.”

🔁 A bidder war reignites with Paramount Skydance stepping back in: Shortly after Netflix sealed its roughly $72 billion deal for WBD’s studios and streaming assets, Paramount Skydance (PARA) launched a hostile all-cash bid for the entire company at $30 per share — a move that could upend the agreement.

📉 Market and regulatory turbulence ahead: Shares of all involved firms have surged or slumped as investors scramble to price in the volley of bids, potential regulatory pushback, and political noise. For media investors, the ending is far from clear — it’s a high-stakes proxy fight with major antitrust implications built in.

📉 Apple faces rare performance pressure: Investors are growing restless as Apple (AAPL) heads into 2026 with slowing iPhone sales, softer China demand, and muted traction in newer categories like Vision Pro. Tim Cook is under pressure to show that Apple can re-energize growth after several years of underperformance versus mega-cap AI peers.

🤖 AI expectations are sky-high: The company’s “Apple Intelligence” rollout was well-received, but Wall Street wants proof it can meaningfully move revenue — not just improve device stickiness. With competitors racing ahead in cloud AI, Apple must demonstrate on-device AI can be a real monetization engine rather than just a marketing story.

📈 The stakes for Cook: 2026 is shaping up as a defining year. A successful AI hardware cycle and a strong iPhone refresh could reestablish Apple as a market leader; a miss would intensify calls for deeper strategic change. For the average investor, Apple is shifting from a steady compounder to an execution story — rare territory for the world’s most iconic tech giant.

NextEra working with Exxon to develop gigawatt data center for hyperscaler (CNBC)

Trump to announce $12 billion aid package for farmers caught up in trade war (CNBC)

Waymo crosses 450,000 weekly paid rides as Alphabet robotaxi unit widens lead on Tesla (CNBC)

Berkshire overhauls top ranks to accelerate shift beyond Buffett era. What it means for the stock (CNBC)

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