5 things to know before the stock market opens on Thursday

Fed officials expect another rate hike by the end of the year, according to minutes from its September meeting released yesterday. But the document offers no clear hints about when exactly policymakers thought the rate hike would occur.

Here’s what else we’re following:

pepsico The company this morning reported a 5.6% increase in net sales, beating Wall Street’s third-quarter expectations in both areas and as international markets continued to drive the company’s growth.

As CNBC’s Amelia Lucas writes, 41% of Pepsi’s net revenue so far this year has come from international operations. Meanwhile, Pepsi’s North American beverage division continues to shrink as it pursues a domestic restructuring focused on ingredient innovation and advertising.

These home-court conflicts are weighing on profits, prompting Pepsi to lower its full-year profit forecast with one quarter remaining. PepsiCo CEO Ramon Laguarta will appear on CNBC at 10 a.m. ET for an exclusive interview. Click here to watch live.

Oil prices rose more than 4% this morning after President Trump said he no longer wanted a deal with Iran. “I don’t think this deal is actually what I want to do, but they’re going to offer anything to stop it,” the president said at a campaign rally in Texas on Wednesday night.

President Trump’s comments came after NBC News reported that he and his team had discussed the possibility of resuming military operations soon. brent crude oil futures and West Texas Intermediate Both futures rose this morning on concerns that fighting in the Middle East could escalate again.

To ease the pain of record diesel prices, President Trump signed an executive order earlier this week that allows truckers to use off-road diesel on highways without paying federal excise taxes. But analysts said the order could simply delay payments rather than remove them altogether.

Microsoft’s for a new laptop Nvidia The chip and price will be $2,599, the companies announced yesterday. Consumers can pre-order the Surface Laptop Ultra now, with shipping starting next week.

As CNBC’s Jordan Novet writes, Microsoft is packing more artificial intelligence features into its consumer devices. Microsoft announced yesterday that Meta will be rolling out a version of its Muse AI agent for Windows.

Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella and Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang are both among the technology executives expected to receive medals from President Trump today, CNBC confirmed. teslaElon Musk and DellMichael Dell is also on the list for the event titled “Science: A New Golden Age Summit.”

Megadonors have broadly supported Republicans this midterm election cycle, according to a CNBC analysis of Federal Election Commission records. Of the 20 largest donors and groups, 14 support Republican candidates or aligned groups exclusively or almost exclusively.

Meanwhile, Democratic donors are increasingly ignoring the Democratic National Committee, with some choosing to funnel money directly to candidates. Fundraisers told CNBC’s Luke Fountain that Democratic donors are “traumatized” by the last election cycle and concerned about the DNC’s leadership and the growing influence of the party’s democratic socialist wing.

From Labor Day to Sept. 25, conservative super PACs outspent their Democratic counterparts by a nearly two-to-one ratio, FEC records show. Republicans are campaigning hard and spending money in hopes of retaining control of Washington, as once-safe districts are now seen as dangerous.

Brace yourselves: Wall Street is counting on another Gangbuster earnings season. Here’s how analysts’ expectations for third-quarter earnings growth have changed since the end of June.

—CNBC’s Jeff Cox, Jessica Dickler, Raya Neelakandan, Sean Conlon, Amelia Lucas, Anique Bao, Spencer Kimball, Jordan Nove, Laura Kolodny, Luke Fountain and Darren Fonda contributed to this report.

Caleigh Keating helped produce this newsletter. Josephine Rozzelle edited this version.