Alex Osola

Eastern time and bond markets an hour later.

Markets will be closed tomorrow for Christmas Day and they'll reopen for regular trading on Friday.

Coming up, the teens juggling high school with founding an AI company and what 2026 looks like for mergers and acquisitions.

Those stories and more after the break.

In deal news, British oil giant BP has agreed to sell a 65% stake in its Castrol Lubricants business to investment firm Stonepeak.

The deal values the division at $8 billion.

The companies announced the deal today after The Wall Street Journal reported that an agreement was near.

And Sanofi is buying vaccine specialist Dynavax Technologies for $2.2 billion.

The French pharmaceutical company has been using acquisitions to strengthen its lineup of medicines and vaccines after some experimental drugs missed their goals in clinical studies or were turned down by regulators.

In fact, there have been a lot of deals this year, from the merger of railroads Union Pacific and Norfolk Southern to Google's acquisition of cybersecurity startup Wiz.

And there have been big breakups, too, like Kraft Heinz splitting into two companies.

What's been driving all this activity?

And can we expect it to continue next year?

I talked about it with WSJ lead deals reporter Lauren Thomas.

Lauren, how was this year for deals?

One of the things that we've seen from the Trump administration this year is a laxer approach to antitrust.

What are some examples and what impact has that had?

What might be some other reasons we're seeing this wave of deals?

What are some of the factors that you're going to be watching to see whether the year is shaping up to be, you know, as great as some bankers are predicting?

That was WSJ Lead Deals Reporter Lauren Thomas.