Stock Market Live September 12: Paramount Bids for Warner Brothers, S&P 500 (VOO) Mostly Flat
Key Points
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Paramount may buy Warner Bros. Discovery.
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Investors await interest rate news.
Live Updates
Friday Wrap-up
The Vanguard S&P 500 ETF closed Friday at 604.39, basically flat for the day but up 1.6% for the week.
Adobe Price Target Cut
BMO Capital also chimed in on Adobe today, but BMO lowered its s price target — to $405, albeit with an outperform rating. Like Barclays, BMO liked Adobe’s new ARR guidance and called the Q3 performance “solid.” However, BMO is more cautious, thinking what Adobe really needs to do is optimize how it uses AI in 2026 to drive revenue growth rather than new user adoption.
Adobe stock is currently down 0.2%. The Voo is down 0.02%.
Adobe Upgraded
Barclays also raised its price target on Adobe after the software firm’s earnings beat, to $465 with an overweight rating. Adobe reported annual recurring revenue of $500 million and doubled its artificial intelligence-services revenue in six months.
GM Upgraded
Barclays upgraded General Motors (NYSE: GM | GM Price Prediction) stock to overweight with a price target of $73 this morning. U.S. regulations encouraging EV sales are easing, says the analyst, and there’s “resiliency” in U.S. car pricing, both of which may help GM to reduce losses at its EV business.
This article will be updated throughout the day, so check back often for more daily updates.
As markets prepare to open for trading Friday, the Vanguard S&P 500 ETF (NYSEMKT: VOO) looks mostly flat — maybe up a basis point or three depending on when you look. Investors it seems are still digesting the week’s economic news, which featured dueling inflation reports (the PPI suggests inflation is falling, while the CPI said it’s not only rising, but rising a bit faster than expected) as well as a weekly unemployment report confirming the job market’s weakness.
On balance, the consensus still seems to be that the Federal Reserve will cut interest rates next week, probably by 0.25%.
In other, newer new, we learned of a possible media merger yesterday. Paramount Skydance (Nasdaq: PSKY) may be preparing to bid to acquire Warner Bros. Discovery (Nasdaq: WBD) in a tie-up of TV streaming content giants. Details are in flux and the bid amount is uncertain, but investors bid up Paramount stock more than 15% yesterday, and the stock’s still rising this morning, up 2.4% premarket.
Warner Bros. stock gained nearly 29% yesterday on the news, and is up more than 8% again today.
Earnings
In earnings news today, S&P 500 component company Adobe (Nasdaq: ADBE) beat analyst forecasts by thirteen cents last night, reporting $5.31 per share in fiscal Q3 profit on just under $6 billion in sales.
Adobe also guided higher, forecasting Q4 earnings between $5.35 and $5.40 per share, with sales of roughly $6.1 billion. Its stock is up 3% premarket.
And in earnings-related news, S&P 500 component Delta Air Lines (NYSE: DAL) told investors last night that it’s sticking with prior earnings guidance for this year, while also raising its sales outlook. Delta thinks 2025 revenue will end up growing 2% to 4%. Delta stock is up marginally premarket — 0.1%.
Joel South covers large-cap stocks, dividend investing, and major market trends, with a focus on earnings analysis, valuation, and turning complex data into actionable insights for investors.
He brings more than 15 years of experience as an investor and financial journalist, including 12 years at The Motley Fool, where he served as an investment analyst, Bureau Chief, and later led the Fool.com investing news desk. He has also co-hosted an investing podcast and appeared across TV and radio discussing market trends.
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