Breakfast News: AbbVie's $11 Billion Pounce

Breakfast News: AbbVie's $11 Billion Pounce

June 22, 2026

| Thursday's Markets | | --- | | S&P 500 7,501 (+1.08%) | | Nasdaq 26,518 (+1.91%) | | Dow 51,565 (+0.14%) | | Bitcoin $63,059 (-1.93%) |

Source: Image created by Jester AI.

1. Report: AbbVie Launches Bid For Apogee

AbbVie (ABBV 0.21%) – recommended by Team Hidden Gems – is lining up the acquisition of Apogee Therapeutics (APGE +0.01%), reports the Financial Times. The article suggests the all-cash deal would be worth $10.9 billion, about 60% ahead of Thursday's close. Apogee stock popped over 50% in pre-market trading, while AbbVie was essentially unchanged.

• "Zumilokibart could fill an important niche in the evolving atopic dermatitis landscape": Evan David Seigerman at BMO Capital Markets commented on Apogee's new drug, expected to enter Phase 3 trials later this year. If approved, it would compete against Dupixent, sold by Regeneron (REGN 2.08%), and is expected by the developer to be longer lasting. Dupixent generated $17.8 billion in revenue last year.
• "A very well run company with a promising pipeline": In TMF CEO and co-founder Tom Gardner's first Quarterly Call last June, he believed AbbVie could be part of a "collection of five [stocks that] will make you money over the next five years, even though I think ... market valuations right now are relatively high."

2. Markets Steady Ahead of Inflation Report

In a market week shortened by Juneteenth National Independence Day, the S&P 500 gained 0.9% with the Nasdaq up 2.4%.

• "Encouraging progress has been made including the creation of a mechanism for further technical talks": Mediators from Qatar and Pakistan spoke of a roadmap aimed at reaching a permanent deal between the U.S. and Iran within 60 days, to help further settle stock markets. Benchmark WTI crude dipped close to $75 in morning trade.
• Headline PCE set to rise further: After the Fed kept interest rates unchanged last week, eyes will now be on the May Personal Consumption Expenditure (PCE) print due Thursday. After the April figure showed a 3.8% increase year over year (YoY), analysts are expecting 4% this time.

3. Earnings We're Watching This Week

• FedEx (FDX 1.85%) – recommended in Stock Advisor by Team Rule Breakers – posts fourth-quarter earnings Tuesday, after beating revenue and earnings expectations in Q3. This will be the first update since the spin-off of FedEx Freight (FDXF 2.49%), which reports Thursday.
• Jefferies (JEF 4.28%), a Team Hidden Gems rec in SA, posts a Q2 update Wednesday. Analysts expect further strong YoY gains, after revenue jumped 26.7% in Q1 with EPS up 22.8%.
• Micron (MU 1.75%) will release Q3 results Wednesday, as the chip maker's earnings have been soaring on the back of near-insatiable AI demand. Q2 revenue climbed 196% vs the prior-year period, with earnings per share up more than six times to a record $12.20. The stock has soared 830% over the past 12 months, reaching a market cap of $1.28 trillion.
• McCormick (MKC 0.36%) hits the headlines Thursday, as analysts expect Q2 earnings to remain flat despite a predicted 14% increase in revenue over the same quarter last year. McCormick is currently in the SA Penalty Box for a review following its planned tie-up with Unilever (UL 0.94%).

4. Satya Nadella Calls For AI Rethink

In an interview with The Wall Street Journal, Microsoft (MSFT 1.57%) CEO Satya Nadella railed against the growing dominance of AI giants. Without naming names, he questioned whether the public would accept control by early mover LLM creators and resulting threats of job losses.

• Microsoft considering offering DeepSeek: In addition to rolling out a number of lower-cost AI applications, including AI agent Copilot Cowork, Microsoft – an SA Foundational Stock from Team Rule Breakers – could drive costs down further by hosting China's cheap competitor to OpenAI and Anthropic.
• "LLM AI is a moatless biz. Distribution is destiny": Fool analyst Seth Jayson earlier this year cautioned that ultimate market domination by the likes of OpenAI is far from a done deal.

5. Today's Take: AI Buzzwords or the Real Thing?

Here are simple (but not catchall) signals I personally use to spot companies using AI in meaningful and durable ways: AI revenue or customer adoption proof ... Pricing power tied to AI ... Capex tied to margin expansion.-- Meilin Quinn Team Hidden Gems

Unless someone is specifically talking about probabilistic tasks (the domain of LLMs), I usually substitute "machine learning" for "AI" in company PR. That makes things a lot clearer: Machine learning finds patterns in data that we'd never discover ourselves. Thus, the data is the key.-- Karl Thiel Team Rule Breakers

6. Your Take

Do you actively look for spinoff opportunities, or does the lack of operating history as an independent company concern you?

Discuss with friends and family, or become a member to hear what your fellow Fools are saying!