For: September 22, 2026
>>Ahead Of The Bell
(New York, NY) -- The opening bell rings this morning on Wall Street after stocks closed higher Monday with the Nasdaq hitting a new record to start the week. Markets rallied as AI-related stocks surged while oil prices and Treasury yields cooled. Shares of Intel, Qualcom and Advanced Micro Devices led the way with AMD reaching a trillion-dollar market cap for the first time. At the closing bell, the Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 366 points to 52-048. The S&P 500 rose 114 points to 77-64. The Nasdaq jumped 599 points to 27-122.
>>Zuckerberg Banks $25 Billion In One Day
(Undated) -- Monday was a good day for Mark Zuckerberg. The Meta CEO saw his estimated net worth rise by 25 billion dollars in a single day. The jump was thanks to an almost 12-percent surge in Meta Platforms shares credited in large part to the roll out of the new Muse AI assistant. Already one the richest men on Earth, Zuckerberg's fortune sat at just over 253-billion dollars as of yesterday.
>>Paramount Skydance Reaches Settlement With States Suing To Block Warner Bros Merger
(Los Angeles, CA) -- Paramount Skydance and a dozen states are settling a lawsuit that aimed to block its 110-billion-dollar merger with Warner Brothers Discovery. The agreement was announced by the two sides on Monday. California Attorney General Rob Bonta said Paramount made several concessions in the deal. The settlement removes a major block to closing one of the largest media mergers in history. It will see two of Hollywood's biggest film studios combine along with two streaming services and two of the largest cable news operations.
>>Groundbreaking Of Eli Lilly Facility In Houston
(Houston, TX) -- Pharmaceutical giant Eli Lilly is breaking ground on a six-billion-dollar manufacturing facility in Texas. Governor Greg Abbott calls it an important part of domestic manufacturing. The facility in Houston's Generation Park will produce the company's first weight loss pill. It's set to be finished in the year 2030.
>>Largest Wendy's Franchise Bankruptcy
(Undated) -- One of Wendy's largest franchisees has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy. Meritage Hospitality Group, which operates 314 Wendy's across 15 states, filed in federal bankruptcy court and says it owes Wendy's nearly 25 million dollars. The company says same-store sales fell more than 11 percent in the final quarter of 2025, while its average beef costs jumped nearly 19 percent from a year earlier. Meritage says it plans to restructure and could close or sell under performing restaurants, but is seeking to preserve jobs and keep its restaurants operating. The company has about eight-thousand-850 employees and says it will continue honoring Wendy's gift cards, loyalty programs and employee benefits during the bankruptcy process.
