Wall Street hangs near its records as the battle to buy Warner Bros. heats up

NEW YORK — U.S. stocks are hanging near the edge of their record heights on Monday as Wall Street waits to hear from the Federal Reserve later this week on what it will do with interest rates.

The S&P 500 edged down by 0.1% in morning trading but remains just 0.4% below its all-time high, which was set in October. The Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 158 points, or 0.3%, as of 10:15 a.m. Eastern time, and the Nasdaq composite was virtually unchanged.

Warner Bros. Discovery helped lead the market and rallied 6.8% after Paramount took its offer to buy the entertainment giant directly to shareholders. Paramount said it's offering $30 in cash for each Warner Bros. Discovery share, as well as a quicker and easier way for investors to get their payout.

Paramount wants investors to take its all-cash bid for the whole company instead of Netflix's offer of cash and stock for just Warner Bros. The board of directors for Warner Bros. Discovery had agreed to Netflix's offer last week.

The Netflix deal is already facing a potentially tough time getting through federal regulators because of worries about too much industry power sitting at one company. President Donald Trump said Sunday that a Netflix-Warner Bros. combination ''could be a problem.''

Paramount Skydance's stock rose 3.5%, while Netflix fell 3.7%.

Elsewhere on Wall Street, Confluent soared 28.5% after IBM said it would buy the company, which helps customers connect and process data. IBM said the $11 billion deal will help customers deploy artificial-intelligence tools better and faster, and its shares added 0.8%.

CRH, a provider of building materials, rose 5.9%, and Comfort Systems USA, a provider of mechanical and electrical contracting services, added 2.2% after likewise learning they'll join the S&P 500 in a couple weeks.

They will replace LKQ, Solstice Advanced Materials and Mohawk Industries, which have all shrunk enough in size that they'll drop down to the S&P SmallCap 600 index of smaller stocks.

On the losing side of Wall Street was CoreWeave. The AI cloud company fell 6.2% after it said it's raising $2 billion in debt that it could repay in stock and cash.

Trading outside of such movers was relatively calm. Wall Street has become much more calm recently following weeks of sharp and scary swings.

The highlight of this week will come Wednesday, when the Federal Reserve will announce its latest move on interest rates.

The big question is what kind of hints the Fed will offer about where interest rates will go after that. Many on Wall Street are bracing for talk aimed at tamping down expectations for more cuts in 2026.

Inflation has stubbornly remained above the Fed's 2% target, and Fed officials are notably split in their opinions about whether high inflation or the slowing job market is the bigger threat to the economy.

In the bond market, Treasury yields climbed. The yield on the 10-year Treasury rose to 4.18% from 4.14% late Friday.

In stock markets abroad, indexes slid 1.2% in Hong Kong but jumped 1.3% in South Korea for two of the world's bigger gains.

___