5 things to know before the stock market opens on Friday

Happy Friday. This week isn’t over yet, but I’m already thinking about next week’s big events: the World Economic Forum in Davos, the big Supreme Court case, and Netflix income.

S&P 500 futures are rising this morning after yesterday’s winning session.

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

Semiconductor stocks led the market rally yesterday. Taiwan semiconductor manufacturing company The company announced better-than-expected results, including a 35% increase in fourth-quarter profit compared to the same period last year.

Here’s what you need to know:

In addition to reporting record quarterly profits, TSMC said it beat expectations and plans to increase capital spending, a sign of the company’s confidence in building AI. Nvidia, advanced micro device and broadcom Later that day, the Commerce Department announced that Taiwan would invest $250 billion to expand its chip production capacity in the United States. In return, the United States will lower comprehensive tariffs on Taiwan from 20% to 15% and promise zero tariffs on some Taiwanese exports. TSMC is already building a factory in Arizona, but Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick told CNBC’s Brian Sullivan yesterday: TSMC Chief Financial Officer Wendell Huang said Thursday that the company’s U.S. investments are not directly related to trade negotiations, but affirmed TSMC’s U.S. expansion plans. “We have strong belief in the AI ​​megatrend, which is why we are ramping up capital investment for expansion in Taiwan and the United States,” Huang told CNBC’s Emily Tan. Follow us here for live market updates.

If you’re disappointed to hear that the parent company of Neiman Marcus and Bergdorf Goodman has filed for bankruptcy, you’re not alone. Amazon I would also like to speak with Sachs Global.

The e-commerce site yesterday asked a federal judge to block Saks Inc.’s bankruptcy financing plan, saying the retailer failed to honor its contract. Amazon invested $475 million in Saks’ 2024 acquisition of Neiman Marcus, but “that equity investment is now likely worthless,” Amazon’s lawyers wrote in the filing.

The company told the judge that Saks’ bankruptcy financing plan would hurt the company and other creditors because it would force the department store operator into more debt. As CNBC’s Gabriel Fonrouge and Annie Palmer reported, Amazon threatened to “explore more drastic remedies” if Saks did not resolve its concerns.

President Donald Trump announced the outline of his health insurance plan yesterday, which his administration said would lower drug prices and premiums.

The plan, dubbed the “Great Health Care Plan” by the White House, would codify President Trump’s “most-favored-nation” policy, which ties prescription drug prices in the United States to lower prices overseas. The fact sheet says the plan would send health insurance premiums “directly” to Americans, but some health policy experts say that’s a bad idea.

The announcement comes as senators struggle to reach an agreement on extending Affordable Care Act subsidies. The new plan does not include an extension of the Obamacare tax credits that Democrats are demanding as part of the health care deal.

Prediction markets could be backed by big banks.

goldman sachs CEO David Solomon said yesterday that the bank is exploring opportunities in growth areas of the financial sector, telling investors on an earnings call that he had “meeted personally with two large forecasting companies and their leaders over the past two weeks.”

Solomon put the brakes on the idea that Wall Street would rapidly adopt prediction markets, while pointing out that the trading platforms regulated by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission “look like derivatives contracting activity.”

“So there is certainly an opportunity for these to be incorporated into our business,” he said.

From the Milan-Cortina Winter Olympics to the Super Bowl and the NBA All-Star Game, sports fans are looking forward to the next month.

NBCUniversal will do the same, broadcasting all three events on NBC and its streaming service Peacock. NBC Chief Marketing Officer Jenny Storms has called this year a “legendary February,” and it will be a huge test for the network, which has spent billions of dollars on live sports rights.

As CNBC’s Alex Sherman reports, next month is just another reflection of NBC’s strategy. Despite what parent company Comcast co-CEO Mike Cavanagh says, it’s sports first.

Here are some stories worth reading over a long weekend.

CNBC’s Dylan Butts, Pia Singh, Ali Levy, Kif Leswing, Emily Tan, Sarah Ming, Gabriel Fonrouge, Annie Palmer, Kevin Brueninger, Garrett Downs, Annika Kim Constantino, Greg Iacrussi, Yun Li and Alex Sherman contributed to this report. Melody Warner edited this version.