Signals, Shifts, and Safe Havens

Daniel Ledenev
Dec 28, 2025
5 min read

👋 Welcome Back Investors! (December 22 to 16, 2025)

This holiday shortened week delivered a mix of corporate headlines and global market themes as stocks hovered near record highs. Deal activity returned to the spotlight, media companies pushed back against consolidation pressure, and precious metals rallied as investors positioned for potential rate cuts in the year ahead. Overseas, Europe’s energy transition faced real world constraints, while in tech, new performance data reignited debate around leadership in high end computing. With lighter volumes but no shortage of catalysts, markets closed the week steady and forward-looking.

Merry Christmas to those who celebrate, and Happy Holidays!

🔐 ServiceNow Makes a Big Cybersecurity Bet With $7.75B Armis Deal

ServiceNow announced it will acquire Armis for $7.75 billion in cash, marking one of the largest cybersecurity deals of the year. The acquisition is aimed at strengthening ServiceNow’s security and risk business as enterprises face a rapidly expanding attack surface driven by AI, cloud adoption, and connected devices. Armis specializes in real time, agentless discovery of both managed and unmanaged assets, including IoT, OT, medical, and industrial devices that are often missed by traditional security tools. By combining Armis’ visibility and threat intelligence with ServiceNow’s workflow automation and AI platform, the companies aim to offer a unified, end to end security exposure and response system that can identify risks and trigger remediation faster.

The deal comes as cybersecurity spending continues to accelerate, with global security budgets expected to grow meaningfully into 2026. ServiceNow’s security and risk segment has already crossed $1 billion in annual contract value, and management expects the Armis acquisition to significantly expand its long term market opportunity. The transaction is expected to close in the second half of 2026, pending regulatory approvals, and will be funded through a mix of cash and debt.

🎬 Warner Bros. Discovery Rejects Paramount’s Hostile Takeover Bid

Warner Bros. Discovery has formally rejected a $108.4 billion hostile takeover bid from Paramount Global (via Paramount Skydance), arguing that the offer was inferior, risky, and misleading to shareholders. The decision came just one day after Affinity Partners, a fund backed by Jared Kushner, withdrew from helping finance Paramount’s bid, weakening the credibility of the proposal. In a letter to shareholders, Warner Bros. Discovery’s board accused Paramount of misrepresenting its financing, stating that the offer was never fully guaranteed or “backstopped” by the Ellison family, despite claims to the contrary. The board raised concerns about reliance on a revocable Ellison family trust, noting that its assets and commitments could change at any time and lacked the certainty of a binding equity guarantee.

Warner Bros. Discovery compared Paramount’s bid unfavorably to Netflix’s binding offer, which requires no equity financing and includes firm debt commitments. Unlike Paramount’s proposal, Netflix’s deal cannot be easily amended or terminated before completion, according to the board. Markets reacted quickly. Shares of both Warner Bros. Discovery and Paramount-Skydance fell following the announcement, while Netflix stock surged as investors viewed its bid as the clearer and more secure path forward. The rejection highlights intensifying consolidation pressure in the media industry, but also shows that boards are prioritizing deal certainty and financing strength over headline price as the streaming wars move into 2026.

🟡 Gold Breaks $4,500 as Safe-Haven Demand Surges

Gold prices pushed above $4,500 an ounce for the first time, extending a historic rally as investors moved into safe haven assets amid rising geopolitical tensions and growing confidence that the Federal Reserve will cut interest rates further in 2026. Thin holiday trading amplified the move, making markets more sensitive to headlines and positioning. The rally was supported by renewed U.S. & Venezuela tensions, which unsettled energy markets and boosted demand for assets seen as stores of value. At the same time, expectations for easier monetary policy continued to underpin gold, as lower interest rates reduce the opportunity cost of holding non-yielding assets like bullion. Strength wasn’t limited to gold. Silver hit a fresh record, while copper also reached new highs, reflecting a mix of safe haven flows and optimism around global demand. Despite strong U.S. economic data showing resilient growth, investors remained focused on the longer term rate outlook, keeping precious metals firmly in the spotlight heading into year-end.

⚡ Britain Went Big on Green Power. Its Grid Isn’t Ready

Britain pushed aggressively into renewable energy, but its electricity grid hasn’t kept up, creating bottlenecks that are now holding the system back. Wind and solar capacity has grown faster than the infrastructure needed to move power from where it’s generated to where it’s used, leading to congestion, higher costs, and wasted clean energy. The issue is increasingly financial as well as environmental. Grid constraints are forcing the system to pay producers to shut off renewable power at times, while relying on backup fossil fuels elsewhere to keep electricity flowing. For investors, the story highlights a key theme going into 2026: the energy transition isn’t just about building renewables. Massive grid investment and upgrades will be just as critical to making green power economically viable at scale.

🖥️ AMD Challenges Nvidia as Radeon Pro Wins Key Engineering Benchmarks

New independent benchmarking showed AMD’s Radeon Pro GPUs outperforming Nvidia’s top workstation cards in several major engineering and design software packages, despite being significantly cheaper. The results highlighted strong performance in real-world professional workloads, where stability, optimization, and price to performance matter more than raw specs. For engineers and enterprise buyers, the findings suggest a compelling alternative to Nvidia’s premium priced offerings. For investors, it adds fuel to the narrative that AMD is steadily gaining ground beyond gaming and data centers, pressuring Nvidia’s dominance in professional and workstation markets as cost-conscious firms reassess hardware spending.

👀 Stocks to Watch: What This Week’s Moves Reveal

Markets closed the holiday week near record highs as investors reacted to deal activity, strong moves in precious metals, energy infrastructure challenges, and renewed debate around AI hardware leadership. Here are four stocks influenced by this week’s themes:

Barrick Gold (GOLD | 3.4%) — In focus as gold prices pushed above $4,500/oz. Record bullion prices improve cash flow and margin expectations for large, low cost producers, keeping gold miners attractive as rate cut bets build.
Wheaton Precious Metals (WPM | 7.6%) — Benefited from the rally across gold and silver, with streaming models offering leveraged exposure to higher metal prices without the same operational risk as miners.
National Grid (NGG | 1.6%) — Drew attention as Britain’s green energy push exposed major grid capacity constraints. Utilities with regulated infrastructure assets are increasingly seen as long-term beneficiaries of massive grid investment needs.
Autodesk (ADSK | 0.5%) — Back in focus as workstation and engineering software performance came under scrutiny. Hardware benchmarking debates highlight the importance of software optimization, reinforcing demand for industry-standard engineering and design platforms.

🛎️That’s a Wrap!

The holiday-shortened week closed with markets holding near record highs as investors balanced major corporate headlines with resilient sentiment. Deal activity stayed in focus after ServiceNow’s move into cybersecurity, while media stocks reacted sharply as Warner Bros. Discovery pushed back against consolidation pressure. Precious metals stole the spotlight as gold and silver rallied to record levels on safe haven demand and rate cut expectations, even as energy and infrastructure challenges abroad highlighted the growing cost of the green transition. Meanwhile, fresh tech benchmarking reignited debate around performance leadership in high-end computing. With lighter volumes but no shortage of catalysts, investors wrapped up the week constructive, but selective, as attention shifts toward 2026 themes.

Until then, stay focused and stay curious. Catch you next week 👋