What’s News in Markets: Memory Chips, Corporate Drama, Mega IPO

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0:42Hey listeners, it's Saturday, December 20th. I'm Francesca Fontana for The Wall Street Journal, and this is What's News in Markets, our look at the biggest stock moves of the week and the news that drove them. Let's get to it. It wouldn't be the holiday season for the stock market without traders hoping for positive momentum to spark a Santa Claus rally. During the week, our last full trading week before Christmas, stocks were trying for fresh records, with some fresh optimism fueling a rally Thursday after an encouraging inflation readout. An end-of-year rally would be a welcome gift to the market, given how a cloudy economic picture and persistent AI-related jitters have been weighing on stocks.

1:25On a weekly basis, the major indexes ended mixed. The Dow lost 0.7%, while the S &P 500 edged 0.1 % higher, and the Nasdaq rose 0.5%.

1:41Speaking of AI jitters, let's look at Micron, the memory chip maker whose latest earnings report brought some good news to the semiconductor sector. So late Wednesday, Micron posted a jump in quarterly revenue and raised its outlook, with investors cheering the results and the trend underpinning the results. There's a shortage of memory chips, thanks to the AI boom, and it doesn't look like it's ending anytime soon. Demand for artificial intelligence has developers scrambling to buy enough of these essential chips, driving up price tags and giving sales a boost for companies like Micron. And so Micron shares surged 10.2 % Thursday, notching a weekly gain of 10.3%.

2:24Next up, we've had two dramatic corporate sagas to keep up with on this podcast and the corresponding moves in the involved party's share prices. So I'll give you some quick hits on Warner Brothers Discovery and Lululemon Athletica. Warner's drama is over its planned$72 billion deal with Netflix, and the hostile bid valued at$77.9 billion from Paramount Skydance. This week, Warner rejected Paramount's offer and recommended that shareholders do the same. While Paramount has argued that its proposal to acquire all of Warner is a better deal for shareholders and more likely to pass regulatory muster, Warner raised concerns about the credibility of the, quote, illusory offer, and its backing from the Ellison family.

3:17Warner shares fell 2.4 % Wednesday, and on a weekly basis, lost 7.4%. Then we have Lululemon, the struggling yoga pants maker that, according to its estranged founder, has lost its cool. Dedicated listeners will recall that the Journal reported that Chip Wilson has been privately taking steps to run a proxy fight. And it seems like that's what's going down, because on Wednesday, we learned that activists investor Elliott has built a stake of over$1 billion in the struggling retailer and wants former Ralph Lauren executive Jane Nielsen to be its new chief executive. In response, Lululemon shares gained 3.5 % on Thursday and notched a weekly gain of 2.2%.

4:03Finally, let's talk about the trading debut that made a big splash this week, that of medical supplies distributor Medline. The stock jumped 41 % on Wednesday, its first day of trading on the Nasdaq, raising over$6 billion, making it the biggest American IPO of the year. It's the largest U.S. initial public offering since Rivian's IPO in November 2021, according to Renaissance Capital, when the electric vehicle startup raised$11.9 billion. Now, this could bode well for future IPOs coming down the pike from large companies like Elon Musk's SpaceX. We'll have to wait and see. And now you know what's news in markets this week.

4:48You can read about more stocks that moved on the week's news in The Score, my column in the Wall Street Journal's Exchange section. Today's show was produced by Jessica Fenton with supervising producer Jana Heron. I'm Francesca Fontana. Have a great weekend. Thank you.