Wall Street Steady as Investors Anticipate Fed Rate Cut

Structure Therapeutics (GPCR) stock rocketed 72% higher just after the open following the biotech company’s positive obesity pill results from a mid-stage study. The stock rose as much as 40% in premarket trading.

The company announced that its oral GLP-1 pill, aleniglipron, reduced weight loss by 11.3% in patients in a 36-week Phase 2b study. Structure also said that 10.4% of patients discontinued treatment after adverse events at the 120mg dose level, while no patients discontinued treatment at a lower 2.5 mg dose.

The results pave the way for Structure to advance its GLP-1 pill to late-stage trials in mid-2026.

“The topline results presented today show that aleniglipron is differentiated and delivered clinically meaningful, competitive and dose-dependent weight loss with a safety profile appropriate for chronic use in a disease that impacts millions of people,” the company’s CEO, Raymond Stevens, said in a statement. “For the higher doses, the observed weight loss data at 36 weeks with no weight loss plateau is potentially best-in-class for oral small molecule GLP1s.”

Pharma companies have been racing to develop a pill version of the injectable GLP-1 drugs, as pills are cheaper to produce and are likely preferred by patients. Novo Nordisk (NVO), a leader in the space, has already applied for FDA approval of its pill, while Eli Lilly (LLY) is expected to apply for FDA approval by the end of this year.

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IBM (IBM) announced it has officially entered an agreement to buy data streaming platform Confluent (CFLT) for $11 billion.

IBM will pay $31 per share in cash for the company as it seeks to rekindle momentum in its cloud software business and take a piece of the AI applications market. Confluent stock traded above $23 per share as of Friday’s close.

Confluent stock soared nearly 30% following the announcement, while IBM shares declined about 1%.

“IBM and Confluent together will enable enterprises to deploy generative and agentic AI better and faster by providing trusted communication and data flow between environments, applications and APIs,” IBM CEO Arvind Krishna said. “With the acquisition of Confluent, IBM will provide the smart data platform for enterprise IT, purpose-built for AI.”

Crude oil slipped in early morning trading on Monday as traders anticipated a likely interest rate cut from the Federal Reserve this week and as peace talks between Russia and Ukraine stalled.

West Texas Intermediate futures (CL=F) fell 1.2% to trade below $60 per barrel while Brent crude (BZ=F), the international benchmark, also dropped 1.2% to $62.

Oil prices dropped after Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky said that negotiators remain divided on the Donbas territory in peace talks brokered by the US.

The steady selling also comes as traders price in 89.6% odds that the Federal Reserve will cut interest rates by 25 basis points at its policy meeting this week, according to CME Group’s FedWatch.

Investment manager Todd Combs is leaving Berkshire Hathaway (BRK-B) as Warren Buffett prepares his own departure at the end of the year.

Combs — seen as an investment protege of Buffett’s, per the FT — will take up a role at JPMorgan Chase (JPM), where he is already a board member. He is also stepping away as CEO of Geico, Berkshire said in a statement on Monday.

“[Combs] has resigned to accept an interesting and important job at JPMorgan,” Buffett said in the statement. “Todd made many great hires at GEICO and broadened its horizons. JPMorgan, as usually is the case, has made a good decision.”

Berkshire is reshuffling its leadership ranks as it adjusts to losing Combs. Geico COO Nancy Pierce will take over the helm at Geico, the insurance giant that is a key part of the Buffett-built conglomerate.

The news comes just weeks after Buffett said he was entering a “quiet period” before handing over the CEO position to Greg Abel in 2026.

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China’s exports returned to growth in November after an unexpected contraction in October, pushing its trade surplus in dollar terms for 2025 past the $1 trillion mark for the first time, according to data released Monday.

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Shares of Confluent (CFLT) surged around 30% in premarket trading after a report that IBM (IBM) is in advanced talks to buy the data infrastructure company.

The deal could be announced as soon as Monday, The Wall Street Journal reported, but noted that the discussions could still collapse.

Customers use Confluent’s platform to process huge streams of real-time data, as used in AI models. If completed, the acquisition would be one of IBM’s biggest deals in recent times, and would play into its push into AI. Shares of IBM were little changed in early Monday morning trading.

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