The Dow Jones Industrial Average logo appears on the screen of a smartphone in Reno, United States, on December 1, 2024. (Photo by Jaque Silva/NurPhoto via Getty Images)
(NEW YORK) — The Dow Jones Industrial Average closed above 50,000 for the first time ever on Friday.
A surge in markets reversed a selloff that hammered tech stocks earlier in the week.
The Dow closed up 1,206 points, or 2.4%, while the S&P 500 climbed 1.9%. The tech-heavy Nasdaq increased 2.1%.
In a post on social media, President Donald Trump touted the high-water mark for the Dow, celebrating the feat as “the first time in History.”
“CONGRATULATIONS AMERICA!” Trump said.
Shares of some tech companies worldwide plummeted in recent days after Anthropic unveiled an artificial intelligence tool viewed by some investors as a potential replacement for widely-used software products.
The selloff came in response to a set of new plugins for a digital tool called Claude Cowork, an AI-fueled workplace assistant that can author documents and organize files. The plugins, released last Friday, allow customers to adapt the tool for narrow sectors like legal, finance or data marketing.
Investors appeared to shrug off the AI-related worries in a buying spree on Friday.
AI chip giant Nvidia surged nearly 8%, recovering most of its losses earlier in the week.
Enterprise-software company Workday ticked up more than 2% on Friday, after a selloff in previous days triggered by the release of Claude Cowork.
Some crypto prices also rallied on Friday, ending a days-long plunge for many digital currencies. Bitcoin and Ether — the world’s two largest cryptocurrencies — each soared about 10% on Friday.
A display of one kilogram gold bars at Conclude Zrt bullion dealer arranged in Budapest, Hungary, on Thursday, Jan. 22, 2026. Gold closed in on $5,000 an ounce, with geopolitical risks and renewed threats to the Federal Reserve’s independence supporting a record-breaking rally. (Photographer: Akos Stiller/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
Gold soared to a new record high on Monday, topping $5,000 per ounce for the first time ever as investors rushed toward the safe-haven asset amid geopolitical unrest.
The latest uptick continued a blazing-hot stretch for gold. Over the past year, the price has climbed 83%, far outpacing a 14% jump in the S&P 500 during that period. In early trading on Monday, the price of gold stood at $5,077 per ounce.
Silver prices also climbed on Monday, jumping about 8% in the early hours of trading. The price of silver stood at $110 an ounce as of Monday morning.
Heightened geopolitical and economic uncertainty have boosted demand for gold and silver, which typically display a degree of independence from movements in stock prices, some analysts previously told ABC News. Volatility in bond markets and a devaluation of the U.S. dollar, meanwhile, have unsettled alternative assets typically viewed as safe-haven investments.
The labor market has slowed in recent months, while inflation has hovered nearly a percentage point higher than the Federal Reserve’s target rate of 2%.
Meanwhile, geopolitical conflict looms amid negotiations over Greenland, U.S.-backed leadership in Venezuela and the ongoing war between Russia and Ukraine.
Over the weekend, President Donald Trump threatened 100% tariffs against Canada if the country pursues a trade deal with China. In response, Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney said the country has no such plans. Under the terms of a free trade agreement with Mexico and the United States, Canada cannot seek trade agreements with nonmarket economies unless it provides notification ahead of time, Carney said.
Precious metals are widely viewed as a hedge against geopolitical unrest because the millennia-old stores of value are perceived as investments that could outlive calamity.
The flight to gold in moments of market turbulence draws on decades of evidence, according to an analysis co-authored in 2025 by Campbell Harvey, a professor at Duke’s Fuqua School of Business who studies commodity prices. The price of gold moved higher during eight of the last 11 major stock market selloffs stretching back to the late 1980s, researchers found.
However, gold and silver prices carry volatility of their own, especially when buyers enter the market at a high point, risking losses instead of providing a security blanket.
(NEW YORK) — A thaw in the housing market may deliver relief for homebuyers left out in the cold over recent years, analysts told ABC News.
After the pandemic, a rapid rise in home prices coincided with stubbornly high mortgage rates, shutting out potential buyers.
Glimmers of hope have started to emerge, however. Mortgage rates are falling, wages are rising faster than home prices and homebuyers are scooping up their biggest discounts in years, some analysts told ABC News.
“Housing is becoming more affordable. Are we there yet? No. But we’re on the right path,” Ken Johnson, a real estate economist at the University of Mississippi, told ABC News.
The average interest rate on a 30-year fixed mortgage stands at 6.09%, Freddie Mac data last week showed. A little more than a year ago, the average 30-year fixed mortgage rate exceeded 7%.
Each percentage point decrease in a mortgage rate can save thousands or tens of thousands in additional costs each year, depending on the price of the house, according to Rocket Mortgage.
“It looks like mortgage rates are settling down,” Lawrence Yun, chief economist at the National Association of Realtors (NAR), told ABC News. “That’s great news for homebuyers.”
A measure of housing affordability issued by NAR has improved for seven consecutive months, rising to its highest level since 2022, Yun said. The surge in home prices has slowed while income gains have accelerated, bolstering the purchasing power of homebuyers, some analysts noted.
“Incomes are growing faster than home prices,” Johnson said.
Despite these positive signals, the housing market still faces significant challenges, some analysts said, pointing to a fundamental shortage of housing supply.
The housing market is suffering from a phenomenon known as the “lock-in” effect, Lu Liu, a professor at the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania, told ABC News.
While mortgage rates have fallen, they remain well above the rates enjoyed by most current homeowners, who may be reluctant to put their homes on the market and risk a much higher rate on their next mortgage.
“The degree of lock-in is unprecedented in the U.S.,” Liu said, noting the prevalence of 30-year mortgages and the inability for homeowners to transfer a current loan to a new property.
Existing home sales declined by 8.4% in January from the previous month, the NAR said in a report last week.
Alongside the lock-in effect, construction has failed to make up for a years-long shortage of new homes, exacerbating the shortfall.
While the lock-in effect remains a significant factor, its impact may be waning as some home owners encounter major life events or other circumstances that force them to move, even if it entails taking on a loan with a higher mortgage rate, Liu said.
“If they really do have to move, maybe they would be more willing to yield to this economic logic,” Liu added.
If homebuyers do move forward with a purchase, they may benefit from major price discounts, Redfin found this month. In 2025, homebuyers received average discounts that amount to 7.9% off a home’s initial listing price, Redfin said, making it the largest average discount in 13 years.
“Homebuyers are more likely to get discounts than they were in recent years because it’s the strongest buyer’s market in recent history,” said Lily Katz and Asad Khan, co-authors of the Redfin report.
Positive signals for homebuyers will likely continue as elevated mortgage rates weigh on consumer demand, slowing the rise in prices, some analysts said. But, they cautioned, an unexpected spike in mortgage rates could hike borrowing costs for homebuyers or an economic slowdown may crimp purchasing power.
“There is uncertainty over the outlook for interest rates,” Liu said. “So the overall price outlook is uncertain.”
David Ellison, chairman and chief executive officer of Paramount Skydance Corp., center, outside the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) in New York, US, on Monday, Dec. 8, 2025. (Michael Nagle/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
(NEW YORK) — Paramount launched a hostile bid for Warner Bros. Discovery this week, just days after Netflix struck a deal to acquire the legacy media company.
The rival multi-billion dollar efforts to purchase streaming platform HBO Max and movie studio Warner Bros., among other assets, could upend the media industry and shape content viewed by hundreds of millions of people.
For now, the outcome remains highly uncertain. Any acquisition of Warner Bros. Discovery would likely be reviewed by the Trump administration, which could move to block a proposed merger over anti-monopoly concerns, according to antitrust experts from Vanderbilt University, the University of Tennessee and the Cardozo Law School.
The government approval process could take anywhere from several months to more than a year, the experts said.
The Department of Justice did not immediately respond to ABC News’ request for comment.
Here’s what to know about the government hurdles faced by a potential blockbuster deal to acquire Warner Bros:
What government hurdles await a bid from Netflix or Paramount?
Streaming giant Netflix appeared to win the bidding war for Warner Bros. Discovery last week, when the two firms announced a merger. Within days, however, Paramount launched a hostile bid for Warner Bros. Discovery, meaning Paramount plans to appeal to shareholders in an effort to overcome the wishes of management.
The $108 billion bid from Paramount encompasses the HBO Max streaming service, the Warner Bros. film production company and cable channels such as CNN. Netflix established its agreement with Warner Bros. Discovery at a lower price of $83 billion, though the Netflix offer excluded the cable channels.
Ultimately, the prevailing bid for Warner Bros. Discovery — whether from Paramount or Netflix — will likely face scrutiny from the Trump administration that could doom the proposal if agency officials consider the newly created company in violation of anti-monopoly law, experts said.
An antitrust review of the merger would draw on a standard established in the Clayton Antitrust Act of 1914, some experts said. The law prohibits mergers in which “the effect of such acquisition may be substantially to lessen competition, or to tend to create a monopoly.”
As part of its assessment, Trump officials would examine the market share of the newly created company, especially with regard to whether it could result in higher prices for consumers or reduced fees for creators selling content to media companies, Maurice Stucke, a law professor at the University of Tennessee, told ABC News.
An antitrust review could also focus on the potential impact on content distributors, such as movie theaters, Stucke noted.
“It’s not just a question of higher prices,” Stucke said. “It could be less content, less choice, less innovation and a decrease in quality — all of those could be a concern.”
If the Trump administration considers a potential merger illegal, a federal agency could seek a settlement under terms that would assuage government concerns.
Typically, the Federal Trade Commission or the Department of Justice (DOJ) are tasked with settlement negotiations or legal action tied to antitrust concerns.
In June, for instance, the DOJ announced a settlement agreement that permitted Hewlett Packard Enterprise’s (HPE) $14 billion purchase of Juniper Networks, a digital infrastructure firm. The settlement requires HPE to divest a part of its business and license Juniper Network’s critical software to competitors, the DOJ said.
If a settlement between the government and the firm cannot be reached, the Trump administration may move to sue the company in an effort to block the merger. A lawsuit would present a task for the Trump administration, Stucke said: “How do you prove this in court?”
The potential merger could also receive scrutiny from state-level regulators or the European Union.
How may regulators weigh a bid from Netflix or Paramount?
Proposals from Netflix or Paramount could each raise antitrust concerns, but for slightly different reasons, some experts said.
Netflix is the most popular streaming service, boasting 300 million subscribers worldwide as of late 2024, the most recent time for which data is available. The company accounts for 46% of mobile app monthly active users in global streaming, according to a CNBC analysis of data from intelligence firm Sensor Tower. After acquiring HBO Max, that share of app users would rise to 60%, CNBC said.
“Netflix has studios and a big chunk of streaming,” Sam Weinstein, a professor at the Cardozo School of Law who focuses on antitrust, told ABC News. “If you think that’s a market, they might have a big enough chunk that they can raise prices to impact streamers.”
“On the other hand, they’re a big buyer of projects. Creators might think, ‘Well now there’s one less studio to bid on my work,” he added.
Netflix may seek a broad definition of the market that includes consumers of online video, such as YouTube and short-form social media content, rather than merely traditional streaming, according to Weinstein.
“In that larger market, Netflix has a much smaller share,” Weinstein said.
Speaking to reporters on an earrings call on Friday, Netflix co-CEO Ted Sarandos voiced confidence about government approval of the merger.
“This deal is pro-consumer, pro-innovation, pro-worker, it’s pro-creator, it’s pro-growth,” Sarandos said, adding that the firm would “work really closely with all the appropriate governments and regulators.”
Paramount+ counts a smaller streaming audience than Netflix, recording about 79.1 million subscribers in September 2025, or less than a third of the audience of Netflix. The comparatively small market share for streaming could lessen concern among regulators about the potential to push up prices for consumers, some experts said.
Still, Paramount boasts a movie studio of its own, Paramount Pictures, presenting a risk of decreased competition for content production in the event of a potential merger, Rebecca Allensworth, a law professor at Vanderbilt University, told ABC News. In turn, TV shows or movies could command lower prices for creators, while actors or other workers could lose out on pay, she noted.
“At this moment, you can approach either Warner or Paramount as competitive studios,” Allensworth said. “This will take away one of those options.”
Speaking to CNBC on Monday, Paramount Skydance CEO David Ellison addressed antitrust concerns, saying the offer from Paramount compares favorably to the one from Netflix when considered through the lens of preserving a competitive industry.
“What we’re creating by putting these two companies together is a real competitor to Netflix, a real competitor to Amazon, a real competitor to Disney — not something that is so anti-competitive,” Ellison said.
Could the Trump administration take into account issues unrelated to competition?
The Trump administration may retain leeway to consider issues unrelated to competition, including potential agreements surrounding coverage at new outlets such as Warner Bros. Discovery-owned CNN, some experts said, noting the murky nature of antitrust law.
“A speeding violation or murder is fairly clear cut,” Stucke said. “With bringing an antitrust claim, there’s a lot of discretion.”
Trump, a frequent critic of major news outlets including CNN, told reporters on Sunday that he would “be involved” in the decision on a potential Warner Bros. Discovery merger. Trump’s willingness to take a direct role in deal evaluation departs from standard practice in which the president has sought to distance himself from antitrust reviews, Weinstein noted.
“The norm is that the White House wouldn’t get involved — that definitely isn’t happening here,” he said.
Speaking on the red carpet at the Kennedy Center honors on Sunday, Trump raised antitrust concerns about a potential Netflix acquisition, saying the deal “could be a problem” due to the market share of the new firm.
The circumstances afford the Trump administration leverage to extract potential concessions from a buyer like Netflix or Paramount, since in each case the purchase presents legitimate antitrust issues, granting Trump an opportunity to exercise robust oversight of the merger while seeking a favorable settlement, Allensworth said.
“Because antitrust law would likely find at least serious problems with the merger, Trump can make that all go away on terms that he agrees to,” Allensworth added.
Weinstein agreed, suggesting that their may be a court-enforceable agreement.
“It’s entirely possible you might have a consent decree with conditions that are non-competitive,” Weinstein said.
As part of a process seeking Federal Communications Commission approval for its $8 billion acquisition of Paramount earlier this year, Skydance agreed to a series of concessions that appeared to align with the views of the Trump administration, including agreements to forego implementation of diversity, equity or inclusion programs and appoint an ombudsman.
In a statement when the acquisition was approved in July, FCC Chairman Brendan Carr said the changes aimed to improve public trust in mainstream news outlets like CBS.
“Americans no longer trust the legacy national news media to report fully, accurately, and fairly. It is time for a change,” Carr said. “That is why I welcome Skydance’s commitment to make significant changes at the once storied CBS broadcast network.”
Experts underscored the uncertainty surrounding the outcome of a potential review of the Warner Bros. Discovery merger.
“If it’s a straight-up merger under antitrust guidelines, that’s one thing,” Weinstein said. “If you can win favor of the administration by making promises, that makes the deal unpredictable.”
