5 things to know before the stock market opens on Thursday

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

Magnificent Seven members alphabet, microsoft and meta platform Both beat Wall Street expectations yesterday, beating earnings per share and revenue expectations while talking about expansion plans. However, investors’ reactions varied widely.

Here’s what you need to know:

Shares of Google’s parent company Alphabet rose more than 7% after revenue related to its Google Cloud and YouTube businesses beat The Street’s expectations. Executives said they plan to significantly increase spending next year to build out infrastructure that can handle AI-related demands. Meanwhile, Microsoft’s stock price fell more than 2% after the company announced it expected to increase spending this year and took a $3.1 billion hit on its investment in OpenAI. Microsoft put yesterday’s report on the backburner to address an outage affecting its Azure and 365 services. Meta shares fell 9% as traders focused on one-time taxes and a $4.4 billion loss from the Reality Labs business. Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg defended Facebook’s parent company’s massive AI spending to analysts, saying the company is “realizing the benefits.” Next up is Big Tech’s profits. apple and Amazon. The other two members of the Magnificent Seven report after the bell. The declines in Microsoft and Meta are weighing on stock futures this morning. Follow live market updates here.

Investors appear to have gotten what they wanted yesterday when the Fed announced it was cutting interest rates by 25 basis points. But with just five words, Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell poured cold water on market bulls.

Chairman Powell said it was “not a foregone conclusion” that the central bank would cut rates again at its December meeting. Following this comment, the stock price fell, dragging down the market. Dow After hitting a record high in early trading yesterday, it fell into the red.

The central bank governor also said the AI ​​spending boom is “different” from the dot-com bubble of the late 1990s. Powell pointed out that the companies involved in today’s big AI successes are “actually making money.”

Here are the biggest takeaways from the Fed meeting:

President Donald Trump said a trade deal had been reached after meeting with Chinese leader Xi Jinping in South Korea. This was a significant development after months of tension between the two countries.

President Trump announced that he would immediately cut fentanyl-related tariffs on China by half from 20% to 10%. This reduction will reduce the overall tariff rate for Asian countries from 57% to 47%. In return, the Chinese government will resume purchasing soybeans and work to curb the flow of fentanyl into the United States.

President Trump also said China would delay for a year stricter oversight of export controls on rare earth materials.

Tech stocks aren’t the only ones driving the market this morning. chipotle pepper Shares fell more than 18% after the fast-casual chain missed third-quarter sales expectations and lowered its sales outlook, citing issues with its younger consumer demographic.

starbucksMeanwhile, the company fell about 3% after the coffee chain posted lower-than-expected earnings per share in the fourth quarter. But the chain posted same-store sales growth for the first time in nearly two years, announcing that its coffee delivery business had more than $1 billion in fiscal 2025 sales.

On the bright side: restaurant brand international The company beat Wall Street expectations in both areas in the third quarter, boosted by the strength of its Tim Hortons brand and international business. Shares jumped 3% in pre-market trading this morning.

comcast Despite failing to grow its broadband subscriber base for the fourth straight quarter, the company beat analyst estimates for the third quarter released this morning. Investors will closely monitor management’s call with analysts this morning for comments on a potential acquisition of a competitor. warner bros discovery or any part of its assets.

Wall Street is questioning the likelihood that President Trump will greenlight the Comcast-WBD deal. But people familiar with the matter told CNBC’s Alex Sherman that some Comcast executives believe those concerns are disproportionate or too early to properly evaluate. A Comcast spokesperson declined to comment.

Disclosure: Comcast is the parent company of NBCUniversal, which owns CNBC. With Comcast’s planned Versant spinoff, Versant will become CNBC’s new parent company.

—CNBC’s Ashley Capoot, Ari Levy, Jonathan Vanian, Jennifer Elias, Pia Singh, Jeff Cox, Sarah Min, Sean Conlon, Sam Meredith, Anniek Bao, Evelyn Cheng, Amelia Lucas, Lillian Rizzo and Laya Neelakandan contributed to this report. Josephine Rozzelle edited this version.