CNBC Business News Update - Market Close: Stocks Higher, Netflix To Buy Warner Brothers Discovery, Investors Gauge Whether Regulators Will Allow That Deal 12/5/25

Episode Date: December 5, 2025

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I'm Jessica Eddinger, CNBC. The S&P 500 Index now on a four-day winning streak. Wall Street opens Monday morning after a three-month-old inflation report came in a tick lighter than expected, helped stocks. On Friday, the Dow was up 104 points led higher by shares of Salesforce, which were up more than 5%. The S&P 500 Index was up 13. The NASDAQ up 72. The major asset. averages all in the green for the week. Shares of NVIDIA fell Friday. They were down a half a percent. But companies who shares hit fresh all-time highs Friday include General Motors, Capital One, Goldman Sachs, Alta Beauty, and Walmart.

Experts are hopeful your stocks will go up into the end of the year. December is usually a good month, but can go either way. Actually, one of the most reliable periods for December is the trading days between Christmas and New Year's that's up almost. 90% of the time. So we could reach new records. That's Wharton, Professor Jeremy Siegel on CNBC. Investors think the Fed will cut interest rates at next week's meeting, but will it matter? Here's CNBC senior economics reporter Steve Leesman. Data from the Bank of America, which looks at paychecks that are in the customer's accounts. You can see their weakness in the payroll numbers and contemporary data on the job market showing weakness.

Will the Fed cuts help the job market now? Probably not. I think a lot of it is linked to the tariffs. Those are hurting small business, and that's where we're seeing the weakness in the job market. Netflix emerges as the high bidder for Warner Brothers Discovery. It would get the movie studio and streaming business and spin off Discovery, which is a bunch of cable channels.

Here's Netflix co-CEO Ted Sarandos. I know some of you're surprised that we're making this acquisition, and I certainly understand why. Over the years, we have been known to be builders, not buyers. But this is a rare opportunity that's going to help us achieve our mission to entertain the world and to bring people together through great stories. And here's a take from Lightshed's Rich Greenfield on CNBC. If you think about Netflix, the engagement has stagnated a bit.

And I think one of big investors' biggest concerns has been, why is engagement not growing faster? YouTube has been the one that has just literally been exploding, taking share. Netflix is looking at this going, there is so much under-exploited IP in this company. How do they use Warner Brothers to re-accelerate the overall engagement growth and time spent? There is just so much stuff. Now, a Netflix purchase of Warner Brothers would need government approval. Netflix is not favorably viewed within this administration. I'm now being told by a senior administration official.

The first blush reaction that we are getting is heavy skepticism. CNBC's Aiman Javers at the White House. On the coming week's watch list, the Fed meets on interest rates, we get new data on the weakening job market, earnings are coming from Oracle, Costco, and Chewy, and the Golden Globe nominees will be announced. Jessica Eddinger, CNBC. The Consumer News and Business Channel, CNBC, we're happy we have your attention, and we promise to work hard to keep it. You're going to be able to be.