$12B farm aid, Tesla downgrade, and NVIDIA chips: Stock Market News

It’s the start of the second week of December, and we began on a bearish note, much like the beginning of December. Although the market may gain momentum in the coming days, we anticipate some promising earnings reports from Broadcom and Oracle. 

Moreover, the chances of the Federal Reserve announcing another rate cut have increased. Bank of America expects a quarter-point cut in December, followed by two more cuts in 2026, before an extended period of stability.

For now, let's look at how the indices performed on Monday, December 8, 2025:

• The S&P 500 closed 0.4% lower despite gains in Paramount and Warner Bros.
• Nasdaq closed 0.1% lower with declines in Marvell, Tesla, and Lululemon.
• The Dow Jones was down 0.5%, but the Russell 2000 ended up closing 0.02% lower.

The future and commodities market appeared collectively red, with declines in oil, natural gas, gold, and silver.

Oil declined more than 2%, continuing its sustained proximity to $58 per barrel price. Natural gas was down more than 8% on Monday, a drop in its otherwise monthly gain of 12%. 

Gold and silver saw declines of 0.5% and 0.9%, respectively.

Government's aid for farmers

The government today announced a $12 billion farm aid package to assist farmers navigate low crop prices and uncertainty resulting from the ongoing US trade wars.

Of this, $11 billion will be used as one-time payments under the Farmer Bridge Assistance (FBA) program, given to row crop farmers producing Barley, Chickpeas, Corn, Rice, Soybeans, and more.

Related: Markets eager for Fed ‘dot plot’ as rate cut bet looms

Whereas the $1 billion will be used for specialty crops, such as sugar, that are not covered under the FBA program, qualifying farmers can expect payments by February 28, 2026. These payments will be impacted by farmers’ 2025 acreage reporting, which is due by December 19, 2025.

Nvidia chips to be exported to China

The White House is planning to allow NVIDIA’s H200 chips to be exported to China, Semafor reported. The chips, which are at least 18 months behind Nvidia’s most advanced one, currently offered to companies in the US, are expected to satisfy the Chinese government, which has blocked some less powerful Nvidia chips, like H20, in the country. Nvidia’s stock was up 1.7% on Monday.

The report was further confirmed later in the day, following President Doland Trump's recent post on his Truth Social account.

WBD, PSKY, Netflix bidding war continued

Now let's dive straight into the Warner Bros Discovery, Netflix, and Paramount Skydance triangle, and PSKY’s move to directly offer WBD shareholders an improved all-cash offer, outbidding Netflix’s $27.75 per share proposition.

In this public offer, Paramount is offering $30.00 per share in cash for the entirety of WBD, including its Global Networks segment. Read the official press release here.

More Nvidia:

• Is Nvidia’s AI boom already priced in? Oppenheimer doesn’t think so
• Morgan Stanley revamps Nvidia’s price target ahead of big Q3
• Investors hope good news from Nvidia gives the rally more life
• Bank of America resets Nvidia stock forecast before earnings
• AMD flips the script on Nvidia with bold new vision

Whether it was too soon to declare Netflix as the winner remains to be seen, seeing that PSKY’s David Ellison had already been vocal about unfavorable regulations for a Netflix acquisition.

PSKY stock gained the most; investors were optimistic about a probable nod from WBD shareholders, as it closed with a 9% gain on Monday. WBD remains at the centre of it all, recording yet another 52-week high, up 4.4%.

Now, as far as Netflix goes, another day, but the same story of loss in stock price continues, down 3.4% today.

Related: Netflix quietly drops Warner Bros. Discovery cable channels in sale

However, it does not stop here. Rosenblatt downgraded Netflix to Neutral from Buy, also lowering its price target to $105 from $152, citing the “surprise announcement” of a $72 billion equity value agreement to acquire WBD as a driver. 

Pivotal Research also downgraded Netflix to Hold from Buy, lowering its price target to $105 from $160. 

Well, the only thing going in Netflix’s favor for now is its "Stranger Things," set for new episodes on Christmas, and it has been doing reasonably well globally.

Morgan Stanley cautious of EVs, downgrades Tesla

Talk about downgrades, Morgan Stanley appears to be on a spree. First, it downgraded Rivian from Equal Weight to Underweight, maintaining the same $12 price target, and stated that it is “leaning more cautious” on EVs in 2026. Rivian’s stock was down 1.9% on Monday.

It further downgraded Lucid Group to Underweight from Equal Weight and also lowered its price target to $30 from $10. The company’s stock was down 4.9% today.

Now, onto a bigger EV name, Tesla, whose stock, down 3.4% on Monday, was also in the crosshairs of Morgan Stanley. The investment firm downgraded Tesla to Equal Weight from Overweight, but increased its price target to $425 from $410, after assuming coverage under a new analyst.

In the long term, Morgan Stanley is bullish on Tesla’s potential to become a market leader in renewable energy, robotics, and autonomous mobility. However, in the short term, it believes the market consensus is overly optimistic, a prime reason for the downgrade, in addition to the firm’s generally cautious outlook of the electric vehicles industry.

Related: Popular analyst says you're ignoring 6 reasons behind stock market's next move