5 things to know before the stock market opens on Friday

Happy Friday. I’ve spent the last 24 hours going back and forth on whether or not I should jump on the “dad shoe” trend.

Stock futures were little changed this morning. Major indexes continue to have declining days.

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

Wall Street returned to its hunt for artificial intelligence losers yesterday, once again focusing on software names. All three major stock averages ended Thursday’s trading in the red.

Here’s what you need to know:

Economic data geeks, rejoice. The December Personal Consumption Expenditures Price Index report, also known as the Federal Reserve’s favorite inflation measure, will be released at 8:30 a.m. ET. Gross domestic product, consumer spending and income data are also scheduled this morning.

These reports follow yesterday’s data showing the US trade deficit for all of 2025 at $901.5 billion. As CNBC’s Jeff Cox points out, this is a 0.2% year-over-year decline, despite President Trump’s broad and expensive tariffs.

Speaking of tariffs, the Supreme Court could rule this morning on the legality of many of President Trump’s levies. Regardless of when a decision is rendered or which side you choose, the court’s decision could have a major impact on consumers and businesses.

In a sense, a new king of the retail jungle has been born. Amazon For the first time in history, it overtook Walmart in terms of annual sales.

Walmart announced yesterday that its latest fiscal year sales were $713.2 billion, lower than the $716.9 billion announced by Amazon. About a year ago, Amazon surpassed Walmart in quarterly sales for the first time.

meanwhile, Bath & Body Works This morning, they announced that they have launched an official store on Amazon. It’s the latest move by the home goods retailer to sell its products outside of its namesake storefront.

In California, rising rent prices and a housing shortage are causing more people to live in RVs. As CNBC’s Kate Rogers and Jeff Kopp report, that’s created a shadow rental market led by what some call “vanlords.”

In Santa Clara County, Silicon Valley, apple and googleincluding some of the most expensive zip codes in the country. According to county government data, the percentage of people sleeping in their cars jumped from 18% in 2019 to 37% last year.

Advocates say RVs are a popular option because they offer more autonomy than shelters or roads. But there is a network of people looking to cash in on other people’s misfortune by renting out dilapidated RVs to people looking for housing without leases or tenant protections.

Remember when changing jobs was the key to big pay increases? Data shows that’s increasingly the case in the rearview mirror.

Last month, the difference in wage increases between workers who stay in their jobs and those who leave was less than 2 percentage points, according to ADP. The figure is down from a peak of 8.4 points in April 2022, when “the great resignation” was the buzzword among economists.

Certainly, salary expectations vary by industry. In industries such as construction and natural resources, compensatory incentives for employees to change jobs remain prominent, while in hospitality and leisure industries it is better to stay for higher pay.

Here are some articles I recommend you make time to read over the weekend.

—CNBC’s Sean Conlon, Hugh Leask, Spencer Kimball, Liz Napolitano, Jeff Cox, Greg Iacrussi, Annie Palmer, Courtney Regan, Kate Rogers and Jeff Kopp contributed to this report. Josephine Rozzelle edited this version.

Correction: Walmart announced yesterday that its latest fiscal year sales were $713.2 billion, lower than the $716.9 billion reported by Amazon. About a year ago, Amazon surpassed Walmart in quarterly sales for the first time. Previous versions incorrectly listed company sales figures and rankings.