The S&P 500 closes at a new record high on below-average volume

Ad tech platform The Trade Desk offered weak Q1 sales guidance as part of its Q4 earnings numbers, sending the stock down sharply after hours Wednesday.

The advertising software company reported:

• Adjusted Q4 earnings per share of $0.59 vs. the $0.58 consensus estimate, per FactSet.

• Q4 revenue of $847 million vs. the $840.6 million expectation.

• Q1 sales guidance of “at least” $678 million vs. Wall Street’s $688.6 million expectation.

The Trade Desk specializes in helping client advertisers shift their ads from traditional linear television toward online streaming services. And the shares posted some impressive gains at times, rising more than 400% over five years starting at the end of 2019.

But the company’s shares have cratered in recent years, in part, because of a daunting competitive threat from Amazon’s demand-side advertising platform. Through Wednesday’s close, the stock was down roughly 80% from where it was trading at the end of 2024.

Paramount Skydance reported underwhelming fourth-quarter earnings after the bell on Wednesday, in the midst of its attempt to win the Warner Bros. Discovery bidding war.

For the last three months of 2025, Paramount reported:

• An adjusted loss of $0.12 per share, compared to Bloomberg estimates of earnings of $0.07 per share.

• Revenue of $8.1 billion, missing Wall Street’s expectations of $8.15 billion.

Looking ahead the company:

• Expects Q1 revenue of between $7.15 billion and $7.35 billion, below the $7.39 billion Wall Street consensus.

Earlier this week, Paramount hiked its offer for Warner Bros. to $31 per share. Warner’s board, which has rejected Paramount’s acquisition attempts several times in recent months, said it’s reviewing the new bid.

If WBD determines the Paramount deal to be a superior offer, Netflix will have four days to match it, beat it, or exit the process. Paramount shares have fallen 24% since it made its initial offer for WBD in December.