Finance, in brief

Paramount Skydance has settled with the twelve US states that sued to block its $110 billion purchase of Warner Bros Discovery. [1][4][9]

The states had asked for asset sales. They got promises instead: Paramount avoids selling any cable channel and keeps every film franchise it owns. [5][8]

Paramount must put 30 films in cinemas each year for two years, then 32 a year for three more, and pay $30 million for each film it falls short by. [3]

It must also spend at least $300 million more a year filming inside the United States, where only about 5% of its production happens now. [3]

A new board will be set up over the newsrooms of CBS News and CNN, with the job of protecting their independence. [1][2][4]

A monitoring trustee, an in-house compliance officer and a committee of five states will police the terms, and a serious breach can force asset sales after all. [2]

Most of the promises run out after three to five years. [5]

California's attorney general, Rob Bonta, who led the twelve, said the settlement is not a vote of support and that he still does not think the two companies should merge. [3][6]

The Writers Guild of America, the union for film and television writers, has its own suit against the deal and has not settled it. [1]

Warner Bros Discovery shares closed 11% higher on Monday; Paramount's fell 3% after Bonta read out the terms. [10][3]

Settling lets Paramount avoid a fee of $7 million a day, owed to Warner's shareholders for every day the deal stays unclosed after 30 September. [1]

David Ellison, Paramount's chief executive, told staff he expects to close in about two weeks. [3]

Why it matters. Watch the Writers Guild case, which is the last suit standing, and the 30 September date that starts the daily fee Paramount is trying to beat.

Brent crude, the oil price most of the world uses, fell for a fourth session on Monday. [15] Early in the day the Wall Street Journal had it down 1.9% at $101.94 a barrel; by the close Reuters put Brent down 4% and US crude down 5%. [15][10] Two things eased the fear of shortage: more oil moving through the Strait of Hormuz, the narrow sea lane at the mouth of the Gulf, and the chance of fresh talks between the United States and Iran. [15] Over four sessions oil has lost more than 9%. [16]

Why it matters. Fuel is inside the price of almost everything, so a falling barrel lowers the inflation figure central banks are chasing. This one move pulled government borrowing costs down and share prices up across the rest of the day.

The yield on a ten-year US government bond, which is what the US government pays to borrow for ten years, fell to 4.972% on Monday. [13] A week ago it touched 5.041%, its highest since 2007. [13] Germany's ten-year rate fell to 3.48%. [14] Ten-year British gilts fell by about 0.05 points as well. [13] Traders gave the same reason each time: cheaper oil means less inflation to price in. [14] Japan's market was closed for a holiday. [13]

Why it matters. These yields sit underneath mortgage rates and company loans, so a fall reaches households months later. It also hands back part of the rise that followed last week's US rate increase.

The Nasdaq Composite, the US share index full of technology companies, rose 2.26% to 27,122.09 on Monday, its first record close since 2 June. [12] The S&P 500 gained 1.49% and the Dow Jones Industrial Average 0.71%. [12] Meta Platforms, which owns Facebook and Instagram, rose 11%, its biggest one-day gain in more than a year, and chip shares rose 4% as a group. [11][10] Energy shares fell 2.6% as the oil price slid. [10]

Why it matters. A week earlier the same shares fell hard when bosses at top AI companies warned about the pace of the technology. [23] Nothing about that was settled in between; the oil price moved instead.

AMD, an American company that makes chips for artificial intelligence, passed $1 trillion in stock market value for the first time on Monday. [21] Its shares have gained about 24% in five days and more than 180% this year. [21] In the second quarter it sold $11.54 billion, half as much again as a year earlier, and its data-centre business more than doubled to $6.7 billion. [21] Its chief executive, Lisa Su, said last month that she expects data-centre sales to double again in 2027. [21]

Why it matters. Nvidia, which leads the same market, is worth about $5.4 trillion, so the gap between first and second place is still more than four times AMD's whole value. [21] Both are being priced on how much more computing the world will buy.

Bitcoin rose 4.7% to $85,117 on Monday, its highest in eight months, after gaining almost 6% the week before. [22] By early Tuesday in Asia it was above $87,000. [19] It climbed past two things that usually push it down: the US central bank raised interest rates last week, and the Clarity Act, a bill that would have written rules for the crypto industry, failed to progress. [22] Shares in Coinbase, a crypto exchange, rose 4.6%. [23]

Why it matters. Bitcoin pays no interest, so it normally suffers when safe bonds pay more. Rising anyway puts it in the same column as the AI shares: money looking for a return it cannot get from a deposit.

The yen fell to 157.33 per dollar early on Tuesday. [19] Japan's central bank raised its rate on Friday, but two of its members voted against, and traders read that as a sign the rises will soon stop. [19] Moves stayed small because Japan was closed for a holiday, and because the Nikkei newspaper reported that Japanese officials had checked dollar-yen prices with banks on Friday. [19][20] Such a check often comes shortly before a government buys its own currency. [19]

Why it matters. A weaker yen makes everything Japan imports, starting with fuel, dearer for people living there. It is also the clearest measure of how far Japan's interest rate now sits below everyone else's.

The extra France pays over Germany to borrow for ten years held above one percentage point on Monday, after reaching 1.04 points on Friday. [10] That is the widest gap since July 2012, in the middle of the euro-zone debt crisis. [10] The cost of insuring French government bonds against default is the highest since 2020. [10] German yields fell anyway because oil was sliding; without that they would probably have risen. [10]

Why it matters. France pays more than Germany for the same ten years because lenders are less certain about its budget. A weekend state election in Germany spread that doubt across the euro zone. [10]

The average price of diesel in the United States nudged up to a record $6.51 a gallon on Monday, the same day Brent crude fell 4%. [10] Diesel moves lorries, trains and farm machinery, so its price ends up inside the cost of food and delivery. [10] A Reuters/Ipsos poll the same day put President Donald Trump's approval rating at a career low of 32%, with the cost of living and the seven-month Iran war given as the reasons. [10] US midterm elections are on 3 November. [10]

Why it matters. Crude oil is the raw material, but diesel is made from it in refineries and priced separately. That is how a pump price sets a record on a day the barrel gets cheaper.

US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and Chinese Vice Premier He Lifeng finished talks in New York on Sunday. [23][11] Bessent proposed a system for the two countries to tell each other about artificial intelligence incidents that could affect national security. [11][23] A China-US summit follows on Thursday, during a visit to the United States by China's leader, Xi Jinping. [23][11] It is expected to cover an extension of the trade truce between the two countries, the Iran war and the regulation of AI. [23]

Why it matters. A truce that lapses is a tariff that returns, and a tariff is paid by the importers in the country that sets it. What was actually agreed at the weekend is much narrower: a way to tell each other when an AI system goes wrong. [11]

Shares in small companies with Greenland mining projects jumped on Monday after the United States and Denmark agreed a security arrangement over the island at the weekend. [23] Critical Metals rose 30% and Greenland Mines 70%; Greenland Energy more than doubled, and one report had it up 153% before the market opened. [23][24] Greenland is a self-governing territory of Denmark. The row over it had been a live risk to trade between the two countries. [23]

Why it matters. Investors were pricing the end of an argument, not any new rock coming out of the ground. These companies are tiny, which is why the percentage moves are so large.

Sazerac, the American family firm behind Fireball and Buffalo Trace whiskey, said on Monday it will offer EUR 5.55 a share in cash for Berentzen-Gruppe, a German drinks maker listed in Frankfurt. [25] That is about 68% more than Berentzen's average share price over the three months to 16 September. [25] Both of Berentzen's boards support the offer and will recommend that shareholders accept. [25] The bid needs holders of 50% plus one share to say yes, needs no competition clearance, and is expected to close this quarter. [25]

Why it matters. A premium that large is what a buyer pays to make the decision easy for everyone holding the shares. Sazerac says it will keep Berentzen's sites and spend more on them. [25]

Silver Lake, a private equity firm, has asked a judge to declare that Carl Icahn and other investors illegally worked together to fight its $13 billion takeover of Endeavor, the sports and entertainment group. [26] Icahn is an activist investor: he buys stakes in companies and then presses them publicly for more money. Silver Lake's claim reaches past him to merger arbitrage as a whole - the trade of buying a target's shares and then pushing the buyer to pay more. [26]

Why it matters. A buyer's real risk is that scattered shareholders start acting as one bloc. Silver Lake is asking a judge to call that coordination illegal.

Priority Technology Holdings, an American payments company, agreed to be taken private by a group of investors led by Thomas Priore, its chairman and chief executive. [28] The deal values the business at about $1.6 billion including its debts. [28] Its shares fell 2% on the day. [28] Taking a company private means buying out its public shareholders, so the shares stop trading and the quarterly accounts stop being published. [28]

Why it matters. The buyer is the boss, which means the person judging what the company is worth is also the person selling it. Its outside shareholders now decide whether that price is enough.

The Qatar Investment Authority, the state fund that invests Qatar's gas earnings, announced a $20 billion partnership with JPMorgan. [26] JPMorgan Asset Management will run a portfolio built for the fund, with $15 billion of it invested in listed company shares. [26] A sovereign wealth fund is a government-owned pool of savings, usually built out of selling natural resources.

Why it matters. Money from gas is being converted into ownership of listed companies, managed by a bank in another country. It is how a resource that runs out becomes an income that does not.

Shares in Societe Generale, one of France's biggest banks, rose 4% on Monday after it raised the profitability target it gives shareholders. [27] The bank said it will cut costs and grow revenue through to the end of the decade, partly by making wider use of artificial intelligence. [27] The move takes its shares up nearly 10% for the year so far. [27]

Why it matters. A profitability target is a promise about how much of each euro of revenue ends up as profit. Raising one while interest rates are high is a claim that the bank can keep more of what those rates bring in.

Polymarket, a website where people bet on real-world events, was hit in February by thieves who linked stolen debit cards to accounts and tried to take at least $10 million, the Wall Street Journal reported on Monday. [29] At one point its payment processor was rejecting more than 80% of deposits as fraudulent, against an industry norm of about 1%. [29] Staff say the chief executive, Shayne Coplan, told them to keep growing and pay a fine if regulators ever found out. [29] The US derivatives regulator is now investigating. [29]

Why it matters. Polymarket is raising $1 billion at a $21 billion valuation, about $300 million of it from 1789 Capital, an investment fund run by Donald Trump Jr. [29] The investigation arrives while that money is being raised.

Italy's treasury hired six banks to sell a new government bond maturing in October 2038 and labelled green, meaning the money raised is earmarked for environmental spending. [30] Barclays, BNP Paribas, Deutsche Bank, Intesa Sanpaolo, JPMorgan and Societe Generale will run the sale. [30] It will be launched when market conditions allow. [30]

Why it matters. Governments choose their moment to sell long debt, and euro-zone borrowing costs fell on Monday as oil slid. [14] That is the kind of window a treasury waits for.

New Zealand's central bank raised its main cash rate by a quarter point to 2.75% at its September meeting, and mapped out a slower path of increases than markets had expected. [31] Its governor said this week that there are risks to both the economy and inflation. [31] Separately, an independent review of the bank said it should give more weight to the real interest rate - the rate left after inflation is subtracted - when setting policy. [32]

Why it matters. A 2.75% rate with inflation near 3% costs a borrower almost nothing in real terms. The review is arguing that the number the bank announces is not the number that acts on the economy.

Economists surveyed by Brazil's central bank now expect the Selic, the country's main interest rate, to end 2026 at 13.50%, down from 13.75% in the previous survey. [33] Brazil cut the rate by a quarter point last week, its fifth cut in a row. [33] The Focus survey of Brazilian forecasters was published on Monday. [33]

Why it matters. Brazil is cutting while the United States, Japan and New Zealand are raising. It got its inflation under control earlier, and is now unwinding the highest rates it has had in years.

Tiff Macklem, governor of the Bank of Canada, said his next rate decisions will turn on how firms and households respond to two things at once: high energy prices and a return of uncertainty about trade. [34] The Bank of Canada is the country's central bank, and the rate it sets is what Canadian mortgages and business loans are priced off.

Why it matters. Those two forces pull in opposite directions. Dearer fuel argues for a higher rate, weaker trade for a lower one, and there is only one rate to answer both with.

The South African rand held steady in early trade on Monday as investors waited for this week's inflation figures and the Reserve Bank's interest rate decision. [35] South Africa is the most industrialised economy in Africa, and those two releases are the clearest guide to where its interest rates go next. [35]

Why it matters. A currency that sits still before a data release is a market with no strong view. The decision later this week is what will move it.

The Inter-American Development Bank, the largest development lender in Latin America and the Caribbean, is drawing up a two-year plan for working with Venezuela again. [36] Its president, Ilan Goldfajn, said missions have gone to the country to look at the economy and the data, and that the bank is writing a document setting out what it plans to do. [36] It stopped new lending to Venezuela in May 2018 after the country fell behind on payments, and is still owed about $2 billion. [36] Goldfajn would not say how those unpaid loans will be handled. [36]

Why it matters. No money has moved. A planning document is the step that comes before any decision about the $2 billion already owed, and before any new lending at all. [36]

A report published on Monday by Morningstar DBRS, a credit rating agency, set out why British government borrowing costs are so high. [37] The ten-year gilt yield has risen from about 1.5% in early 2022 to about 5.4% in mid-September 2026. [37] The Bank of England puts about 2 percentage points of that 3.5-point rise down to the term premium - the extra return lenders demand for tying money up for years. [37] Pension funds that once bought long gilts steadily are buying less as their schemes close to new members. [37]

Why it matters. Pension funds used to buy whatever Britain's treasury issued. The investors replacing them argue over what they will pay, which is why a British budget now moves borrowing costs faster than it once did.

Shares in Ipsen, a French drugmaker, fell 6.6% to a seven-month low of EUR 145.60 after the US Food and Drug Administration approved a generic copy of its main hormone drug earlier than expected. [38] A generic is the same medicine sold without the brand name, and it usually costs a fraction as much. [38]

Why it matters. The date matters more than the decision: drug companies plan years of revenue around when a copy is allowed to appear. Moving that date forward removes the money before the plan can change.

Malaysia's government has asked Malaysia Airlines and Batik Air whether they could absorb AirAsia's domestic routes, two people told Reuters, as officials watch the finances of South East Asia's largest low-cost airline. [39] AirAsia owes the airport operator MAHB at least 500 million ringgit and has said it is seeking more than $1 billion of new money. [39] Its shares fell as much as 21% in one session this month, to their lowest since December 2022. [39] The airline says it is focused on keeping its operations stable. [39]

Why it matters. A government asking rivals to cover the routes is contingency planning, not a prediction. AirAsia carries much of the region's cheap domestic traffic, so the question reaches passengers before it reaches shareholders.

High-speed trading firms are pulling back from India's huge derivatives market. [40] Their share of turnover fell to 54.7% in August, the lowest since December, in a market doing 193 trillion rupees - about $2 trillion - of notional trades a day. [40] A derivative is a contract whose value follows something else, here mostly share indexes. [40]

Why it matters. These firms supply much of the day-to-day trading. When they step back, the market gets thinner and each order moves the price further.