5 things to know before the stock market opens on Thursday

The US Federal Reserve (Fed) yesterday raised interest rates for the first time in more than three years, raising the benchmark interest rate by 25 basis points. The move had been widely expected, following comments from Speaker Kevin Warsh on inflation. Dow Jones Industrial Average Plunging more than 600 points, 10 year treasury Yields return up to 5%.

I’ll summarize it below.

All 12 members of the central bank’s Federal Open Market Committee voted in favor of the rate hike. The Fed also signaled that there could be another rate hike this year. At a press conference after the decision, Warsh said that inflation was still too high. “This summer’s inflation measurements do not indicate a significant improvement in the underlying trend.” Both press conferences and post-meeting statements were similarly noticeably short under Mr. Warsh’s leadership. President Donald Trump told reporters yesterday that he still had confidence in Warsh, but also asked the Fed to lower interest rates. Keep it below 1%. As CNBC’s Matt Peterson writes, the fight over the Fed’s independence could resurface if Warsh votes in favor of raising rates despite President Trump’s continued calls for rate cuts. There are signs that one more rate hike may be on the way this year, and investors are bracing for an era of high interest rates for an extended period of time. Follow us here for live market updates.

OpenAI yesterday disclosed six more instances of what it called “unexpected or concerning” behavior by its models, and said in a blog post that it “does not believe the AI ​​industry has resolved coordination and monitoring to a sufficient degree.” These six incidents do not include the “face-hugging incident” that shocked the AI ​​field.

The disclosure comes days after OpenAI CEO Sam Altman supported Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei’s call to slow down AI model development. Sarah Heck, head of public policy at Anthropic, said yesterday that she doesn’t believe AI companies can alleviate safety concerns with an “honor code”: “We can’t check our own homework, and that’s very clear.”

Sen. Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut told CNBC yesterday that new AI products must undergo some “objective review” before release. Meanwhile, Emile Michael, the Pentagon’s chief technology officer, expressed opposition to increased government oversight of AI companies.

The House of Representatives yesterday voted to hold Leon Black in contempt of Congress. Apollo Global Management The CEO has refused to respond to subpoenas related to the Jeffrey Epstein investigation. Mr. Black’s lawyers slammed the move as “outrageous” and argued that the related subpoenas were “null and void.”

As CNBC’s Dan Mangan reports, it’s unclear whether the Justice Department will ultimately prosecute the billionaire. Mr. Black has not been charged with any wrongdoing related to his relationship with Mr. Epstein, but he resigned from Apollo’s leadership in 2021 after the company revealed that he paid Mr. Epstein $158 million for tax and estate planning advice.

boeing CEO Kelly Ortberg doesn’t want investors to get their hopes up about quick production of the 737 Max.

Mr. Ortberg said yesterday that production of the company’s best-selling plane would “take a little longer” than expected to stabilize, citing constraints on wing production at its Renton, Wash., facility. The executive said the company plans to increase production of the plane next year, from the current 47 per month.

Boeing shares closed 3% lower in Wednesday trading, after falling more than 5% following Ortberg’s comments. Yesterday’s decline brings the company’s year-to-date decline to 7%.

shares of Generac Power is up nearly 30% before the bell, as the backup power company said in a securities filing: Amazon has the right to purchase up to $340 million worth of company stock.

Generac said Amazon could acquire up to 1.69 million shares at $200.93 per share as part of the deal to supply backup generators to Amazon’s data centers. As CNBC’s Annie Palmer points out, this is just the latest in a series of infrastructure deals made by the e-commerce giant. Amazon also has a history of acquiring stakes in suppliers, including: Astera Research Institute and ATSG.

—CNBC’s Jeff Cox, Darla Mercado, Kevin Breuninger, Sarah Min, Paulina Likos, Matt Peterson, Ashley Capoot, Isabel O’Brien, Dan Mangan, Justin Papp, Leslie Josephs, Annie Palmer and Jordan Novet contributed to this report.

Josephine Rozzelle edited this version.