A Quiet Day? WBD, Fed Chair Interviews, Earnings Reports

Wednesday, December 17, 2025

This morning, we take a pause from big economic prints and/or market-moving earnings reports. We’re sandwiched between yesterday’s big Employment Situation report and tomorrow’s Consumer Price Index (CPI) and Inflation Rate, both of which were delayed due to the government shutdown. But we’ll be more caught-up as of tomorrow, for better or worse.
 

Stick a Fork in PSKY’s Warner Bros Bid?

This is not to say there aren’t newsworthy items ahead of today’s open: Warner Brothers Discovery WBD this morning reportedly told shareholders to reject the Paramount Skydance PSKY offer to buy the entertainment giant, and instead move forward with the bid from Netflix NFLX. There appear to be two concrete reasons for this, spelled out in documents released this morning.

The first is, Netflix’s bid includes a spinning-off of the Discovery Channel cable TV entity, for which it was revealed there is an (unnamed) interested party. PSKY’s bid would include the cable channel in its overall acquisition. Perhaps more importantly, however, PSKY CEO David Ellison, the son of Oracle’s ORCL Larry Ellison, does not include guaranteed money to secure this deal — which is obvious would have come from Ellison, Senior’s coffers. Thus, the PSKY funding element is perceived to be rife with some risk.

Does this mean the counter-bid is kaput? Well, the ring bell hasn’t yet sounded, but PSKY’s bid looks woozy. While it’s possible Larry Ellison could change his mind and use tens of billions of his Oracle money to secure this deal on PSKY’s behalf, and perhaps a high enough bid would be enough for shareholders to change their collective mind, it doesn’t look like a good bet from this vista.
 

Fed Chair Interviews Continue

After seemingly a done deal a month ago, the White House is actively interviewing candidates to replace Fed Chair Jerome Powell at the end of his term in May of next year. Director of the NEC for the current Trump administration, Kevin Hassett, had been considered the clear favorite to take the job, but today former Fed Governor Kevin Warsh looks to be getting an inside track.

Warsh was on the FOMC board from the start of Fed Chair Ben Bernanke’s first term in February of 2006 until March of 2011. During that time, he was often the sole dissenter on Fed policy. The Stanford-educated Warsh was also an activist in the wake of the financial collapse in 2009, unsuccessfully attempting to bring about mergers between some of Wall Street’s biggest investment banks. In short, his brief tenure on the Fed was filled with eventful moments.

This might be enough for President Trump to prefer he take the helm as Fed Chair. Another reason — and this one differs from Chair candidate Fed Governor Chris Waller’s public opining about inflation concerns — is that Warsh is a strong proponent of the Fed getting out of the way. He has expressed opposition to the manicuring of the economy throughout the course of the eight Fed meetings per year.
 

Earnings Reports This Morning: GIS, ABM

The parent company of Cheerios, Cocoa Puffs, Annie’s, Blue Buffalo and Green Giant (to name but a few), General Mills GIS, has outperformed expectations on both top and bottom lines in its fiscal Q2 report ahead of today’s open. Earnings of $1.10 per share outpaced the Zacks consensus estimate of $1.02, for a +7.84% positive surprise. Revenues also outperformed projections by +1.89% to $4.86 billion for the reported quarter. Shares are up +1.1%, but still down -25% year to date. For more on GIS’ earnings, click here.

Facility management provider (electrical, heating, etc.) ABM Industries ABM posted mixed results for its fiscal Q4 report out this morning. Earnings of $0.88 per share missed the $1.10 analysts were looking for, but $2.18 billion in quarterly revenues surpassed expectations by +1.19%. Pre-market trading is only down marginally at this hour, but the stock is still -10% year to date. For more on ABM’s earnings, click here.
 

Micron Reports Earnings After the Close

Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy)-rated Micron MU reports fiscal Q1 earnings after the regular trading session concludes this afternoon. Expectations are high: earnings are projected to have grown +118% year over year, with revenues anticipated +46%. Micron is riding a streak of 10-straight earnings beats, with a trailing 4-quarter average beat of +9.36%. 

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