WSJ What’s News - What’s News in Markets: Paramount’s Win, Private Credit Carnage, Block Layoffs

Episode Date: February 28, 2026

How did the Warner Bros. bidding war affect Netflix and Paramount stock? And why are private lenders selling off sharply? Plus, what do investors think of Block’s steep layoffs? Host Jack Pitcher discusses the biggest stock moves of the week and the news that drove them. Sign up for the WSJ's free Markets A.M. newsletter. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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I'm Jack Pitcher for The Wall Street Journal. And this is What's News and Markets, our look at the biggest stock moves of the week and the news that drove them. Let's get to it. AI was in focus once again this week, and it feels like investors don't know what to make of the rapid advancements in artificial intelligence models. AI optimism has been one of the biggest drivers of market gains the past few years. But in 2026, traders are thinking more of the more than.

about what threats it could pose. That tension came to a head on Monday when everyone on Wall Street was talking about a viral blog post from a small investment research firm that imagined an AI doomsday scenario for white-collar workers. Stock indexes sold off sharply Monday,

an analyst pointed to the memo as a prime culprit. By the end of the week, indexes had posted modest declines. The S&P 500 fell 0.4%, while the NASDAQ was 1% lower, and the Dow dropped 1.3. A winner has emerged in the Warner Brothers sweepstakes, and investors on both sides are actually happy.

Netflix had previously reached an agreement to buy Warner's movie and TV studios, as well as the HBO Max streaming service. But on Thursday, it said it would back away from its deal. That was after Paramount Skydance came in with a higher offer of $11 billion for the entire company, which Warner said was a superior deal for shareholders. In a statement announcing it would not raise its bid, Netflix said Warner was a quote, nice to have at the right price, not a must have at any price.

Paramount shares soared 26% this week on the deal news. The owner of Paramount Pictures and CBS is set to add huge properties and brands, like CNN, Superman, and Harry Potter to its portfolio. But Netflix shares also got a boost. Some investors had been concerned the streaming giant was going to overpay for assets it didn't need. A recent sell-off reversed this week, with shares ending up 22%.

Concerns are growing about private credit. It's a fast-growing industry where investors extend large loans to companies directly and bypass the traditional publicly traded bond market. But it's come under scrutiny after some high-profile defaults. Lately, investors have been fretting about how exposed private lenders are to software companies. Software has been the worst-performing sector this year, amid concerns that AI's ability to write code will reshape the industry and increase competition. Private equity companies bought up hundreds of software companies over the past decade, and many of those deals were financed with private debt. Now, concerns are starting to creep in about some of those companies' ability to repay. Shares of the biggest private credit

firms have dropped sharply this year, and with AI concerns top of mind again this week, and announcements that some of the firms are cutting dividends. They took another like. lower. Private lender's KKR, Apollo, and Ares were among the S&P 500's worst performers this week, dropping more than 9% each. Here's a piece of evidence for the AI doomsday crowd and one that caught Wall Street's attention. Block, the payments company that owns Square and Cash app, said on Thursday it'll lay off 40% of its workforce. In a letter to shareholders, CEO Jack Dorsey alluded to new AI tools as a reason for the cuts. It's exceptionally rare for a company as big as block to lay off nearly half its employees in one swoop.

But shareholders applauded the reduction in expenses, sending block shares up 17% on Friday, for a weekly gain of 20%. And now you know what's news in markets this week. You can read about more stocks that moved on the week's news and our live markets coverage on WSJA.com. Today's show is produced by Alexis Moore with Deputy Editor Chris Zinsley. I'm Jack Pitcher. Have a great weekend. Enterprises are already creating efficiencies with agenic AI, particularly in areas like finance, HR, and IT, says Jason Gersatus, CEO of Deloitte US.

Those will continue to proliferate and strengthen. It will change the work that gets done and work will increasingly be delivered through agentic capabilities. Gerzadis believes the most transformative impacts of agentic systems are still to come. It will fuel innovation. It will fuel the pivot into. to market creation, market diversification strategies that will open up new markets to clients and to organizations who are looking for growth and looking for differentiated access to new markets, which I think is the most exciting thing.

Visit Deloitte.com to learn how your enterprise can help successfully leverage agentic AI. The views and opinions expressed by podcast speakers and guests are solely their own and do not reflect the opinions of Deloitte or its personnel, nor does Deloitte advocate or endorse any individuals or entities featured on the episodes. Custom content from WSJ is a unit of the Walls, Street Journal advertising department, the Wall Street Journal News Organization was not involved in the creation of this content.