Stock Market Today: Futures Fall Ahead of Inflation Reading; Nvidia Shares Point Slightly Higher After Sinking

February 27, 2026 07:06 AM EST

Netflix Shares Surge After Dropping WBD Bid; Winning Suitor Paramount Pops as Well

FROM 6 minutes ago

Netflix decided not match Paramount Skydance’s offer for Hollywood giant Warner Bros. Discovery. Investors of both bidders are cheering the news. 

Shares of Netflix (NFLX) soared 8% in premarket trading Friday, a day after the streaming giant announced it wouldn’t match Paramount’s revised bid to acquire all of Warner Bros. Discovery (WBD) for $31 a share. Shares of David Ellison-led Paramount (PSKY) popped 9%, while those of WBD declined 2%.

“We believe we would have been strong stewards of Warner Bros.’ iconic brands, and that our deal would have strengthened the entertainment industry and preserved and created more production jobs in the U.S.,” Netflix co-CEOs Ted Sarandos and Greg Peters wrote yesterday. “But this transaction was always a ‘nice to have’ at the right price, not a ‘must have’ at any price.”

Earlier Thursday, WBD wrote that its board concluded Paramount’s increased offer to acquire the entire company was a “Company Superior Proposal” to its deal with Netflix, announced in December, for the streamer to acquire Warner Bros., consisting of its film and television studios, its HBO Max streaming service, and HBO.

WBD said yesterday that Netflix would have four business days to propose revisions to their merger agreement “so that the PSKY proposal would cease to constitute a “‘Company Superior Proposal,'” but Netflix elected to bow out of the race.

February 27, 2026 06:20 AM EST

Stock Futures Fall Ahead of Inflation Reading

FROM 52 minutes ago

Futures contracts connected to the Dow Jones Industrial Average pointed up 0.6%.

S&P 500 futures were up 0.4%.

Nasdaq 100 futures were 0.3% higher.