📊 Oracle Is Bleeding Cash

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Happy Sunday!

As the year comes to a close, I hope you’ve had an incredible one filled with progress, milestones, and meaningful growth.

• Life is challenging, but every step forward matters, and how you keep moving makes all the difference.

• Thank you for being apart of this journey. I’m excited for what 2026 has ahead.

I’ll be taking a two-week break, and the newsletter will return on January 4th. And with that, let’s cover the final issue of the year.

Key Data Bites From This Week:

• Morningstar published the 160 best companies to own in 2026.

• Wedbush shared 12 AI companies to avoid.

• Fed cut interest rates by 25 bps and expects only 1 cut in 2026.

• Trump will let Nvidia sell H200 chips to China if U.S. gets 25% cut.

• IBM will acquire data streaming platform Confluent for $11B.

• Mastercard announced a $14B share buyback program.

• Trump announced $12B in aid to U.S. farmers.

• JPMorgan sees $105B in 2026 expenses, above $101B analyst estimate.

• Pepsi will lower prices and cut number of individual products by 20%.

• China’s trade surplus crossed $1T for the first time.

• Rising stocks created 287 new billionaires this year.

• Microsoft and Amazon have pledged to invest over $52B in India.

• Palantir announced a $448M deal with the U.S. Navy.

• U.S. trade deficit reached a five-year low.

• Tesla U.S. sales dropped to a near four-year low.

• Disney will invest $1B in OpenAI and license characters.

• Eli Lilly helped patients cut >23% of body weight with next-gen shot.

Earnings Results & Guidance:

• GE Vernova ramped buybacks, doubled its dividend, and guided to a 20% adjusted EBITDA margin by 2028.

• AutoZone posted its sixth-straight earnings miss.

• GameStop posted declining sales but collectibles increased 50%.

• Costco saw sales increase 8.2% and digital sales jump 20.5%.

• Broadcom now has a $73B backlog in AI product orders.

In today’s newsletter:

• 🍿 Paramount Enters The Fight

• 🚀 SpaceX To IPO

• 🩸 Oracle Is Bleeding Cash

• 🎨 Adobe Is Far From Dead

• 🎽 Lululemon’s Growth Hits A Wall

Let’s jump right in.

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Paramount is not backing down.

• On Monday, the company launched an unsolicited, hostile all-cash tender offer of $30 per share directly to Warner Bros. Discovery shareholders.

• The bid values the deal at roughly $108B.

Paramount had previously made the same offer to Warner Bros. Discovery’s board, who rejected it.

• In total, the board turned down six proposals, prompting Paramount to bypass management and go straight to shareholders.

• Just last week, Warner Bros. Discovery accepted a competing bid from Netflix to acquire its streaming and studio assets for $83B.

Paramount argues its offer delivers greater value to shareholders and a clearer path to regulatory approval.

• Combined, Paramount and Warner Bros. Discovery would control nearly 14% of U.S. TV viewing time, based on Nielsen data from October.

What happens next remains uncertain.

• The Warner Bros. Discovery board must formally respond, shareholders will need to vote, a bidding war could emerge, and regulators will review both proposals.

In other words, a final outcome is likely still months away.

Elon Musk is inching closer to a trillion-dollar fortune.

On Tuesday, Bloomberg reported that SpaceX is targeting a valuation of roughly $1.5T and is pursuing a public listing as early as mid-to-late 2026.

• The company is looking to raise well over $30B, which would make it the largest IPO in history.

• SpaceX is projected to generate $15B in revenue in 2025, with this figure expected to climb to $23B in 2026.

Musk later confirmed plans for SpaceX to go public in a post on X.

• At a $1.5T valuation, SpaceX would more than double Musk’s net worth, pushing it to roughly $952B.

Oracle’s AI bet is growing fast, but so is the cash burn.

The company reported mixed earnings in its most recent quarter.

• Adjusted earnings reached $2.26 per share, well ahead of estimates, helped in part by a one-time gain from the sale of its Ampere stake.

• Revenue rose 14% to $16.06B, but missed analyst expectations.

For the current quarter, Oracle guided to $1.72 in adjusted earnings and projected 20% revenue growth, broadly in line with consensus.

• Remaining performance obligations continued to swell, jumping to $523B and above the $502B estimate.

• That backlog growth was driven in part by new commitments from customers like Nvidia and Meta.

But free cash flow was the real concern.

• Oracle reported -$10B in free cash flow for the quarter.

• Over the past twelve months, free cash flow has fallen to -$13B.

The burn reflects a sharp ramp in capital spending as Oracle builds data center capacity to support AI workloads.

• Rising CapEx, growing debt needs, and fears of an AI bubble have weighed heavily on sentiment.

• Concerns are amplified by Oracle’s concentrated customer exposure, with OpenAI representing its largest commitment.

Shares are now down more than 40% since spiking in September following the $300B OpenAI cloud deal.

Adobe keeps delivering while the market stays skeptical.

Despite ongoing concerns about its long-term positioning, the company continues to post solid results.

• In Q4, adjusted earnings reached $5.50, while revenue grew 10% to $6.19B.

• Analysts had expected $5.40 in earnings and $6.11B in revenue.

• The company also beat guidance expectations for the current quarter.

Looking ahead to fiscal 2026, the company guided to 10.2% annual recurring revenue growth and projected both revenue and adjusted earnings above consensus.

• In short, Adobe delivered a beat in the most recent quarter, a beat on the current quarter’s guidance, and a beat on 2026 expectations.

The company also recently announced plans to integrate its applications more deeply into ChatGPT, expanding distribution and usage across AI-driven workflows.

While demand for Adobe’s tools remains strong and AI monetization is increasing, fears about future competition from AI-native tools continue to weigh on sentiment.

• As a result, shares are down 20% YTD and trade at just 15x forward earnings, a notable discount to the broader market.

Lululemon’s CEO is headed for the exit.

Shares jumped more than 10% after the company announced the news during its Q3 earnings report.

• The decision marks the end of an era under CEO Calvin McDonald, who took the role in August 2018.

• McDonald will leave the position in January 2026 after eight years at the helm, and will remain on as a senior advisor through March 2026.

The leadership change comes after a clear slowdown in growth.

• Lululemon has now posted six consecutive quarters of low single-digit comparable sales growth.

In Q3, the company beat expectations on both earnings and revenue, but forward guidance disappointed.

• Q4 revenue is expected to be about $3.55B, below the $3.60B estimate.

• Earnings per share are guided to $4.71, well under the $5.03 estimate.

The company’s CFO and COO will serve as interim co-CEOs while a search for a new leader begins.

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Notable Companies Reporting Earnings Week of December 14th, 2025:

Buys

• Cleo Fields (D)

  • Company: Netflix ($NFLX)

    • Amount Purchased: $200K - $500K

• Michael McCaul (R)

  • Company: Genuine Parts Co ($GPC)

    • Amount Purchased: $100K - $250K

Sells

• Michael McCaul (R)

  • Company: Las Vegas Sands Corp ($LVS)

    • Amount Sold: $100K - $250K

  • Company: Genpact ($G)

    • Amount Sold: $100K - $250K

Buys

• Gartner Inc ($IT)

  • Insider: Stephen Pagliuca (Director)

    • # of Shares Purchased: 43,300

    • $ Amount: $9,940,341

    • SEC Forms: [1]

• Alpha Metallurgical Resources ($AMR)

  • Insider: Kenneth Courtis (Director)

    • # of Shares Purchased: 12,760

    • $ Amount: $2,320,467

    • SEC Forms: [1]

Sells

• Broadcom ($AVGO)

  • Insider: Henry Samueli (Director)

    • # of Shares Sold: 320,316

    • $ Amount: $128,297,553

    • SEC Forms: [1]

• AMD ($AMD)

  • Insider: Lisa Su (Chair, President & CEO)

    • # of Shares Sold: 125,000

    • $ Amount: $26,891,905

    • SEC Forms: [1]