Tesla and Oracle among market cap stock movers on Monday

Investing.com -- Adtalem Global Education Inc. (NYSE:ATGE) stock rose 6.4% on Monday after the healthcare education provider announced a new $750 million share repurchase authorization and completed its previous $150 million buyback program.

The company, which describes itself as America’s largest healthcare educator, said its board approved the new three-year authorization through December 2028, reflecting management’s confidence in Adtalem’s strategic direction and financial strength. Under the completed program, Adtalem repurchased approximately 1.6 million shares.

"Our operational execution continues to generate strong cash flow, giving us the flexibility to invest in significant growth opportunities while returning capital to shareholders in a tax-efficient manner," said Steve Beard, chairman and chief executive officer of Adtalem Global Education.

Since February 2022, the company has returned $913 million to shareholders by repurchasing 17.2 million shares at an average price of $52.95, representing a 30% reduction in shares outstanding. Adtalem currently has 34.9 million shares of common stock outstanding as of December 10, 2025.

The company has also strengthened its balance sheet, reducing debt by $1.1 billion since acquiring Walden University in August 2021. Current debt stands at $508.4 million as of October 31, 2025.

Adtalem plans to host an Investor Day on February 24, 2026, where it will provide a comprehensive strategic and operational update.

This article was generated with the support of AI and reviewed by an editor. For more information see our T&C.

Investing.com -- JPMorgan has identified several European aerospace and defense companies poised for potential growth in 2026, placing MTU Aero Engines, Babcock, and Leonardo on Positive Catalyst Watch.

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These companies are expected to benefit from specific catalysts that could drive share performance in the coming year.

The investment bank’s analysis highlights four overweight-rated stocks in the sector that investors should watch closely:

MTU Aero Engines (ETR:MTX)

Despite investor concerns about potential earnings growth challenges in 2026 due to headwinds including foreign exchange impacts, JPMorgan’s analysis suggests MTU will likely guide to rising earnings for the year.

Additionally, any positive developments regarding the GTF Advantage engine entering into service could support share prices, with this catalyst more likely to materialize in Q2 2026.

In recent news, MTU Aero Engines has drawn new analyst attention, with RBC Capital initiating coverage with a Sector Perform rating and Goldman Sachs starting with a Neutral rating.

Babcock International (LON:BAB)

The British defense contractor is expected to sign a new long-term contract for UK submarine maintenance by March 2026, potentially worth over £10 billion.

JPMorgan also notes that Babcock could secure multiple new contracts over the next 9 to 15 months, though the timing of these additional deals is less predictable.

Leonardo (BIT:LDO)

The Italian aerospace and defense company will present its new Industrial Plan in March 2026, with potential to raise its medium-term guidance.

JPMorgan also highlights two possible M&A transactions that might be completed in Q1 2026, including Iveco Defence and an Aerostructures joint venture, though timing remains uncertain.

Leonardo signed a Memorandum of Understanding with Airbus and Thales to merge their space activities into a new venture, though subsequent reports have indicated that talks have stalled.

Rolls-Royce (LON:RR)

The British engineering giant is expected to increase its guidance for medium-term margins in both its Civil Aerospace and Power Systems divisions. JPMorgan sees a high probability of a new share buyback program being announced, which could provide additional support for the stock.

Rolls-Royce recently received a credit rating upgrade to Baa1 from Moody’s, which cited the company’s strong performance. The company also received new "Buy" and "Outperform" ratings from Goldman Sachs and RBC Capital, respectively.

The analysis focuses on specific catalysts that could drive performance for each company rather than broader sector trends.

JPMorgan’s Positive Catalyst Watch designation for MTU Aero Engines, Babcock, and Leonardo indicates particular confidence in near-term developments for these companies within the European aerospace and defense sector.

This article was generated with the support of AI and reviewed by an editor. For more information see our T&C.

Investing.com -- U.S. stocks rose Monday, as investors prepared for the final full trading week of the year, which includes a series of important economic data releases. 

At 09:32 ET (14:32 GMT), the Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 175 points, or 0.4%, the S&P 500 index gained 35 points, or 0.5%, and the NASDAQ Composite climbed 145 points, or 0.6%.  

Payrolls lead off data deluge 

Sentiment received a boost last week after the Federal Reserve cut interest rates by 25 basis points, and indicated the likelihood of one more reduction in 2026.

The focus this week is likely to be on a slew of U.S. economic data reports, which could provide guidance as to the likely path of interest rates into the new year.

On Tuesday, the November jobs report will be published, with economists anticipating that U.S. payrolls inched up by a muted 35,000, according to Reuters estimates. Nonfarm payrolls from October, which were not announced because of the shutdown-driven data blackout, will be folded into the November report.

Meanwhile, a fresh unemployment rate will be unveiled, after the government’s 43-day closure kept the tally for October from ever being collected.

Thursday sees the release of the consumer price index for November, due on Tuesday and Thursday, respectively. 

Any signs of further cooling in the labor market and inflation are likely to increase expectations of more interest rate cuts by the Fed, with the central bank last week reiterating its message that future rate decisions will depend largely on the path of the U.S. economy. 

Micron’s earnings in spotlight

In the corporate sector, earnings from semiconductor group Micron Technology (NASDAQ:MU) are likely to be in the spotlight this week, especially after weakness from the likes of Oracle (NYSE:ORCL) and Broadcom (NASDAQ:AVGO) cast fresh doubt on the viability of the massive spending on artificial intelligence, resulting in a rotation away from the tech sector.

But the feeling around Micron is "extremely bullish," with many anticipating a multi-year boom cycle for the company’s high-bandwidth memory chips, which help power cutting-edge AI processors, the Vital Knowledge analysts said, with the results due on Wednesday.

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Still, even amid doubts over the tech sector, analysts at Goldman Sachs remain confident about the growth of the benchmark S&P 500 index over the course of the next 12 months. .

In a note, the strategists including Ben Snider and Ryan Hammond predicted that profit per share in stocks in the benchmark index would rise by an annualized 12% in 2026 to $305.

Revenue is also tipped to grow by 7% next year, with 70 basis points of profit margin expansion, the analysts added.

Underpinning these forecasts are Goldman Sachs’s predictions for accelerating gross domestic product growth in the U.S., along with a further softening in the dollar. 

"Beyond the macro drivers, the profitability of the largest stocks will continue to be a key driver of S&P 500 earnings growth," they argued, adding that returns from the seven largest stocks in the index -- Nvidia (NASDAQ:NVDA), Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL), Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT), Google (NASDAQ:GOOGL), Amazon (NASDAQ:AMZN), Broadcom, and Meta (NASDAQ:META) -- account for roughly a quarter of its total earnings.

Crude stabilizes after hefty losses

Oil prices slipped lower, adding to the previous week’s sharp losses as traders digested the prospect of disruptions to global supply from escalating U.S.-Venezuela tensions as well as a potential Russia-Ukraine peace deal.

Brent futures dropped 0.6% to $60.77 a barrel, and U.S. West Texas Intermediate crude futures fell 0.7% to $56.85 a barrel.

Both benchmarks slid more than 4% last week, driven largely by fears that global crude supply is outstripping consumption growth.

Ambar Warrick contributed to this article

Investing.com - Brad Jacobs, Chairman and CEO of QXO, Inc. (NYSE:QXO), announced Monday he will step down from his chairman positions at XPO, Inc. (NYSE:XPO) and GXO Logistics, Inc. (NYSE:GXO), effective December 31, 2025.

Jacobs will continue to serve as Senior Advisor to XPO through June 30, 2026, while maintaining his roles as Chairman and CEO of QXO, according to the company’s statement.

The leadership change will allow Jacobs to concentrate more fully on QXO and Jacobs Private Equity, his personal investment firm that invests equity capital in companies positioned for exceptional value creation.

QXO, currently North America’s largest publicly traded distributor of roofing, waterproofing and complementary building products, aims to become the technology-enabled leader in the $800 billion building products distribution industry.

Jacobs stated that QXO intends to grow into a $50 billion revenue leader in building products distribution through acquisitions and organic growth, targeting this revenue milestone within the next decade.

This article was generated with the support of AI and reviewed by an editor. For more information see our T&C.

Investing.com -- Adaptive Biotechnologies Corp (NASDAQ:ADPT) stock rose 4.3% in Monday premarket trading following the announcement of two non-exclusive agreements with Pfizer Inc (NYSE:PFE) that could be worth up to $890 million.

The commercial stage biotechnology company revealed a target discovery agreement to identify disease-specific T-cell receptors (TCRs) in rheumatoid arthritis and a data licensing agreement for Pfizer to access Adaptive’s proprietary TCR-antigen datasets for research and development in multiple immunology applications.

Under the rheumatoid arthritis agreement, Adaptive will lead target discovery activities to identify disease-specific RA TCRs, while Pfizer will handle all development and commercialization of therapies identified through this work. Adaptive will receive an upfront payment and may be eligible for additional payments in data delivery, development, commercial, and sales milestones potentially totaling up to $890 million.

The second agreement involves Pfizer licensing certain Adaptive TCR-antigen data to develop and train AI and machine learning models for accelerating research and drug discovery across multiple disease areas. For this non-exclusive, multi-year data access agreement, Adaptive will receive an upfront payment and potential future annual licensing fees, though specific financial terms were not disclosed.

Adaptive has generated what it describes as the largest and highest quality TCR-antigen binding dataset compared to what is publicly available, which can potentially inform discoveries across immunology programs.

This article was generated with the support of AI and reviewed by an editor. For more information see our T&C.