5 things to know before the stock market opens on Thursday

Happy Thursday. Yesterday, Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell’s standard line seemed to be, “I have nothing to say about that,” to reporters at least five times during his press conference.

Stock futures were little changed this morning. The three major indexes ended yesterday’s trading with slight gains.

Here are five important things investors need to know to start their trading day.

Yesterday, the Federal Reserve decided to leave its main interest rate unchanged, and naturally all eyes were on the press conference that followed Chairman Powell’s announcement. This was Chairman Powell’s first press conference since announcing he was under criminal investigation.

Here’s what you need to know:

Chairman Powell described the economy as being in “solid” condition and said the Fed does not view current monetary policy as “significantly restrictive.” As has become the norm in recent months, not all Fed committee members were on the same page. This time, two bank governors, Stephen Millan and Christopher Waller, divided their ranks and lobbied for a further quarter-point rate cut. Asked to comment on some of the political issues roiling the Fed, including a criminal investigation related to Congressional testimony about renovations to the central bank’s headquarters, Mr. Powell repeated some variation of “I have nothing to say about that.” A person familiar with the matter told CNBC yesterday that the Fed has not yet followed the grand jury’s instructions. However, there was one political topic that Powell commented on. It was Federal Reserve President Lisa Cook’s Supreme Court case. Mr. Powell attended oral arguments in the case last week, calling it “perhaps the most important case in the Fed’s 113-year history.” S&P500 Yesterday, it crossed the 7,000 mark for the first time ahead of the Fed’s decision, and the index has since fallen back. Follow us here for live market updates.

Meta Shares rose more than 8% in after-hours trading after Facebook’s parent company beat fourth-quarter profit estimates in both areas and issued strong revenue guidance. As CNBC’s Jonathan Vanian reports, Wall Street appears to be praising Meta’s artificial intelligence spending plans.

However, it was not a complete report. Meta’s Reality Labs unit reported an operating loss of $6.02 billion, which was higher than the $5.67 billion loss expected by The Street. The mega-cap technology company also reported a 21% increase in losses from its Metaverse-focused business in the quarter compared to a year ago.

on the other hand, microsoft It fell 7% overnight. Despite beating Wall Street forecasts on both lines, the Washington-based company reported slowing cloud growth and a modest operating margin outlook.

tesla yesterday reported better-than-expected fourth-quarter profits and sales, sending its stock up about 2%. However, the electric vehicle maker also reported its first full-year sales decline on record.

CEO Elon Musk said during Tesla’s earnings call that the Texas-based company will end production of the Model S and Model X. As CNBC’s Laura Kolodny and Ali Levy point out, these two models are Tesla’s oldest and have seen their prices reduced in recent years. Musk said Tesla will instead use its factory in Fremont, California, to manufacture the Optimus humanoid robot.

During its earnings call, Tesla also announced a deal to invest approximately $2 billion in xAI. The startup, also run by Musk, was founded in 2023 as a potential competitor to OpenAI. xAI is best known for its Grok chatbot, but the startup has recently fallen on hard times amid increased global regulatory scrutiny.

of us dollar index Stocks rebounded somewhat yesterday after Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent shut down reports that the U.S. might intervene in foreign exchange markets.

In an interview with CNBC’s Sarah Eisen, Bessent said the United States would “absolutely not intervene” in response to reports that the New York Fed was reviewing the dollar-yen exchange rate with dealers. On Tuesday, the dollar index fell to a multi-year low after President Donald Trump suggested he was satisfied with the dollar’s current value.

The index, which measures the dollar’s weight against a basket of foreign currencies, has fallen more than 10% in the past 12 months. As CNBC’s Chloe Taylor reports, some market participants believe the dollar is currently in a bear market.

Trump Account, a tax-advantaged savings account for children, received additional support yesterday.

JP Morgan Chase, bank of america and wells fargo All said they would apply one-time U.S. government contributions to the accounts of eligible employees. Altimeter Capital CEO Brad Gerstner also announced an initiative to seed accounts with children in his home state of Indiana.

Rapper Nicki Minaj said she would donate between $150,000 and $300,000 to fan accounts. “If I had had access to something like this, my life would have been completely different,” she said yesterday at a summit promoting the account. It is unclear who exactly will be eligible for this pool of funds.

Zoran Mamdani, who took office as New York City’s mayor just a few weeks ago, appeared on CNBC’s “Squawk Box” yesterday to discuss his plans to increase taxes on the city’s wealthiest residents. Watch the full interview:

CNBC’s Jeff Cox, Dan Mangan, Eamonn Javers, Darla Mercado, Sean Conlon, Jonathan Bunyan, Jordan Nove, Laura Kolodny, Ali Levy, Sarah Ming, Chloe Taylor, Hugh Song, Jessica Dickler, Kate Doll and Kevin Browninger contributed to this report. Josephine Rozzelle edited this version.