Kim Kahn

In other news of note, Paramount Skydance sweetened its takeover bid for Warner Bros.

Discovery by adding what's known as a ticking fee, paying Warner Bros.

Discovery shareholders $0.25 per share for every quarter the deal isn't finalized after the end of the year.

That works out to roughly $650 million per quarter, aimed at easing concerns about regulatory delays.

Paramount also said it would cover Warner's $2.8 billion termination fee to Netflix if Warner walks away from the current deal, and, if needed, backstop a debt refinancing and cover another $1.5 billion in related fees.

Warner said it will review the amended offer and later issue a board recommendation.

And in the Wall Street Research Corner, Goldman Sachs' panic index is back near lofty historic levels.

Analyst Gail Hafif said the latest reading is 9.22, based on a mix of one-month S&P implied volatility, VIX volatility, put-call skew, and the slope of the volatility term structure.

Hafif said those metrics suggest investors are not far from max fear.

Welcome to Seeking Alpha's Wall Street Lunch, our afternoon update on today's market action, news, and analysis.

Good afternoon.

Today is Monday, February 9th, and I'm your host, Kim Kahn.

Our top story so far.

Despite intensifying competition, OpenAI's CEO, Sam Altman, told employees that chat GPT is back to growing more than 10% a month.

CNBC reports Altman wrote in an internal Slack message that OpenAI expects to release an updated chat model this week.

and that Codex, its AI coding tool, has grown by about 50% in just the past week.

The report estimates ChatGPT now has more than 800 million weekly active users, a number that is echoing just how mainstream AI has become.

Among active stocks, Monday.com is plunging after its revenue outlook came in below estimates.

For the full year, the company expects revenue of about $1.46 billion versus the 1.48% consensus.

Kroger is getting a lift after tapping former Walmart exec Greg Ferran as its new CEO.