Mid-Morning Look

Monday, December 22, 2025

U.S. stocks open higher to kick off the holiday-shortened trading week following a volatile last week, as the S&P 500 logged its third winning week in the past four and remains less than 1% from its prior all-time highs on 12/11 while the Russell 2000 is less than 2% below its ATH and NDX 3% below a new record. Solid gains to start the week for tech after choppy trading in the AI/data center/hyperscaler space recently on funding and valuation fears. NVDA shares bounced this AM after a Reuters report the company told clients that it hopes to start Shipping its H200 chips to China before mid-February, ORCL rises on positive analyst commentary (Wells) and Ai names rebound in general. Several M&A headlines out this morning as PSKY amends its offer for WBD in battle with NFLX; CTAS announces bid to acquire UNF in uniform industry; CWAN rises after agreed to an $8.4B take-private deal by an investor group led by Permira and Warburg Pincus, and in financials, Trian and General Catalyst to take JHG private in $7.4B deal as per CNBC. Another big story is the extending gains to record highs for precious metals as gold prices are up +1.4% to $4450 an ounce and silver prices are up to a fresh record of $69.34 (YTD gold is +68% and silver +140%), on track for their biggest yearly gains since 1979 for both. Oil bounces as President Trump is stepping up his Venezuela crackdown by pursuing a third oil tanker, intensifying a blockade meant to cut off a crucial cash lifeline for their government. Strength early as the S&P 500 and Nasdaq look to make it an 8^th straight month of gains as all sectors except Consumer Staples and Utilities are trading higher early, while the dollar extends 2025 losses.

• In Aerospace & Defense: RKLB announced an ~$806M award from the Space Development Agency (SDA) to design, manufacture, and support the operations of 18 satellites for the Tracking Layer Tranche 3 (TRKT3) program under the Proliferated Warfighter Space Architecture. BKSY initiated Buy at Jefferies saying the satellite intelligence co appears set to grow its top line at roughly 25% per year on a strong international customer base and the debut of its Gen-3 satellites. SWK shares rose after selling Consolidated Aerospace manufacturing business to HWM for $1.8B.
• AMZN, GOOGL, DASH, CVNA, RDDT, EBAY, VRSN, W, WIX, GDDY top picks for 2026 North America Internet at Citigroup saying: On AMZN, Citi notes accelerating AWS growth led by Ai demand, eCommerce wallet share gains, and greater margin expansion and on GOOGL its industry leading Ai Tools should translate into continued Search revenue growth with Cloud growth accelerating given demand for its TPUs, leading FMs, and infrastructure capacity. Citi is also raising its AWS and Google Cloud projections. On eBay, valuation remains attractive as collectibles, eBay Live, and its agentic suite can deliver improving fundamentals, while on VRSN, continued fundamental improvements present a strong opportunity.
• Wind Projects: The Trump administration suspended leases for five large-scale under-construction offshore wind projects over National Security concerns, the Department of the Interior said. The department said the move was made after the Pentagon raised concerns that the movement of Turbine blades and the highly reflective Towers cause radar interference. The pause will affect the following projects: GEV’s Vineyard Wind 1, Danish energy firm Orsted’s Revolution Wind and Sunrise Wind, Dominion (D) Coastal Virginia Offshore Wind–Commercial, and EQNR Empire Wind 1 projects.

• CWAN +8%; after agreed to an $8.4B take-private deal by an investor group led by Permira and Warburg Pincus. Clearwater stockholders will receive $24.55 a share in cash, representing a premium of about 47% over Clearwater’s share price on Nov. 10, the last trading day before Media reports of a potential transaction.
• CYTK +8%; said the FDA Myqorzo, for adults with symptomatic obstructive hypertrophic cardiomyopathy to improve functional capacity and symptoms, ahead of their highly anticipated Dec 26th 2025 PDUFA.
• JHG +3%; shares rose after Trian and General Catalyst will pay $49 per share in cash, valuing Janus at about $7.4 billion. That represents a 6.5% premium from Friday’s close. The deal is expected to close in mid-2026, they said as per CNBC initially this morning. https://tinyurl.com/363ypsmc
• NVDA +1%; has told Chinese clients it aims to start Shipping its second-most powerful Ai chips to China before the Lunar New Year holiday in mid-February, three people familiar with the matter told Reuters.
• RKLB +6%; after the company announced an ~$806M award from the Space Development Agency (SDA) to design, manufacture, and support the operations of 18 satellites for the Tracking Layer Tranche 3 (TRKT3) program under the Proliferated Warfighter Space Architecture (PWSA).
• TE +3%; after signing a three-year deal to supply Treaty Oak Clean Energy with 900 megawatts of solar modules from its planned G2_Austin solar cell facility. Under the agreement, Treaty Oak locks in a supply of silicon solar panels that it expects will meet the new federal rules on foreign-made content.
• UNF +15%; after CTAS submitted a proposal to the UniFirst Board of Directors to acquire all outstanding common and class B shares of UniFirst for $275.00 per share in cash. The Proposal, which was delivered to the UniFirst Board on December 12, 2025, implies a total value for UniFirst of approximately $5.2 billion.
• WBD +3%; PSKY amends $30/shr all-cash offer for WBD to address stated concerns regarding Paramount’s superior offer; Larry Ellison has agreed to provide an irrevocable personal guarantee of $40.4B of the equity financing for the offer and any damages claims against Paramount; To also increase its regulatory reverse termination fee from $5B to $5.8B.

• FAST -1%; as CEO steps down.
• HON -1%;  after the company said it expects to record charge of about $470M in Q4 related to potential settlement of Flexjet-linked litigation; also updates FY outlook as it plans to report its Advanced Materials unit as discontinued operations starting in the fourth quarter of 2025 as sees EPS profit $9.70-$9.80/share, down from $10.60-$10.70.
• NFLX -1%; secures $25B of new financing for its WBD deal: A $5B unsecured revolver plus $20B of delayed draw term loans ($10B 2 year + $10B 3 year) – and PSKY amends offer for WBD.