5 things to know before the stock market opens on Wednesday

Happy Wednesday. This is CJ. I’ll be back for another edition. It’s starting to cool down outside the Englewood Cliffs bureau, but as a native Californian, I always get excited at the thought of officially entering fall. But if you still have tropical thoughts, keep reading for news on the Caribbean Agreement.

It was a mixed day on Wall Street, with stock futures lower this morning.

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

Oil prices fell for the fifth day in a row on Tuesday after President Donald Trump said US and Iranian delegations had a “very good” three-hour meeting on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly. Earlier, Iran was reported to have suggested it could reopen the Strait of Hormuz within seven days if the US eases military pressure and lifts the blockade of Iranian ports.

Here’s what you need to know:

West Texas Intermediate Futures are currently on their longest losing streak since February, but brent crude oil Futures are on their longest losing streak in more than a year, but fuel prices are still at record highs. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said yesterday that the Trump administration is considering a full or partial ban on diesel exports to ease prices. This is said to be something that President Trump is promoting in discussions within his administration. Lawmakers are introducing a slew of new bills this month that include tax credits aimed at reducing the impact of gas and fuel prices on people’s budgets. of Nasdaq Composite The S&P 500 ended the day relatively flat, although it closed at a high for the second day in a row yesterday. Follow live market updates here.

In a speech to the United Nations General Assembly on Tuesday, President Trump defended his decision to go to war with Iran, saying he had a “big decision” to make on whether to strike a deal with Iran or “annihilate the Islamic Republic and do it quickly.” Iran’s military responded to President Trump’s comments this morning, saying his threats were a sign of “strategic desperation.”

In his speech, President Trump emphasized that new military agreements with the leaders of Greenland and Denmark will allow the United States to expand its military presence on the island. The deal, signed on the sidelines of yesterday’s United Nations gathering, comes after Trump repeatedly called for the United States to take control of Greenland during his second term in office.

But it wasn’t just geopolitics. President Trump reiterated his pledge not to “hinder the growth” of artificial intelligence, which he calls “superintelligence.” OpenAI CEO Sam Altman and Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei are scheduled to brief the UN Security Council this week.

Speaking of Frontier AI Labs, Anthropic and OpenAI both announced new lower-cost models on Tuesday. In the case of OpenAI, it comes in the form of an additional layer to the GPT-6 family, while Anthropic is announcing the latest in its new Claude 5.5 model family, Claude Opus 5.5.

The two institutes face continued pressure from companies and startups offering cheaper open-weight models, especially as cost-conscious customers look to rein in their AI spending.

These releases mark the first developments for both companies since Amodei called on the entire industry to slow down advanced AI development in response to growing concerns about the safety of the technology. with altman space x Elon Musk was quick to back Amodei’s push for a slowdown.

The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services announced yesterday that it has canceled about 315,000 Affordable Care Act marketplace enrollments that covered about 760,000 people last month. The agency alleges there was fraudulent enrollment in the program, which Vice President J.D. Vance characterized as “rampant fraud.”

As CNBC’s Annika Kim Constantino reports, it’s unclear how many of the 315,000 enrollees involved people who were ineligible for coverage. The Trump administration has widely condemned fraud in the national health program.

Anchors are preoccupied with new travel partnerships. royal caribbean will acquire a 50% stake in Sandals in a $3 billion deal, the companies announced today. The deal is expected to close early next year and values ​​Sandals at $6 billion.

As CNBC’s Contessa Brewer reports, Royal Caribbean is looking to diversify its vacation offerings beyond luxury cruises and private destinations. The company’s shares fell 6% in Tuesday trading after reports it was close to reaching an agreement with the Caribbean resort chain.

— CNBC’s Sam Meredith, Lim Hui Jie, Spencer Kimball, Sara Agostino, Kevin Browninger, Anique Bao, Annika Kim Constantino, Tanaya Machel, Garrett Downs and Talia Kaplan contributed to this report.

Josephine Rozzelle edited this version.