5 things to know before the stock market opens on Wednesday

Happy Wednesday. It’s also April Fool’s Day, so be on the lookout for company announcements that sound too good to be true today.

Stock futures are rising this morning. The three major indexes posted strong gains yesterday, ending a difficult month and quarter on a high note.

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

Stocks hit their highest since May yesterday following unconfirmed reports that Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian is willing to end the US-Iran war with guarantees. Despite Tuesday’s gains, the major averages still posted significant declines in March.

Here’s what you need to know:

nike It beat Wall Street’s revenue and bottom line expectations for its fiscal third quarter yesterday. However, investor concerns about a downward revision to the company’s sales forecast for the year weighed on the stock price, which fell more than 10% in overnight trading.

The sporting goods retailer’s sales from the North American market rose 3% in the quarter, slightly below analysts’ expectations. Meanwhile, Nike’s revenue in the Chinese market fell by 7%, but it was still higher than people had feared. The company expects the Chinese market to decline by 20% during the current quarter.

As CNBC’s Gabriel Fonrouge points out, the report was released during Nike’s restructuring plan. CEO Elliott Hill acknowledged in a release that “the pace of progress varies across the portfolio.”

According to the White House, President Trump signed an executive order yesterday placing restrictions on mail-in voting, a measure quickly denounced by voting rights advocates.

Under the order, the Department of Homeland Security would work with the Social Security Administration to create a list of verified U.S. citizens eligible to vote in each state. The U.S. Postal Service, rather than state election officials, will be responsible for delivering primary and absentee ballots to individuals on state-specific mail-in and absentee participation lists.

Critics say the order would disenfranchise millions of Americans. The bill is likely to be challenged in court and could be blocked before the closely watched midterm elections this November.

OpenAI announced yesterday that it has completed a record funding round. Committed capital was $122 billion, up from the $110 billion the company announced in February.

OpenAI opened up participation to investors through banking channels for the first time, announcing that it has raised $3 billion from retail investors. SoftBank co-led the round in partnership with investors including Andreessen Horowitz and DE Shaw Ventures.

As CNBC’s Ashley Capoot points out, OpenAI is gearing up for a potential IPO. Sam Altman’s company announced yesterday that it generates $2 billion in monthly revenue but is not yet profitable.

“Project Hail Mary” was a box office hit. As CNBC’s Sarah Witten writes, the success story is: Amazon We need MGM, and we need Hollywood.

The movie, starring Ryan Gosling, has grossed more than $300 million worldwide since its release two weeks ago, making it the highest-grossing film ever for an Amazon-MGM film. Science fiction titles also didn’t see as big of a week-over-week decline as you would normally expect for blockbusters.

Sean Robbins, Fandango’s director of analytics, said Project Hail Mary set a “new gold standard” for Amazon. “The power of the moviegoing experience is at its fullest right now,” he said.

—CNBC’s Sean Conlon, Spencer Kimball, Jordan Nove, Chloe Taylor, Liz Napolitano, Gabriel Fonrouge, Garrett Downs, Ashley Caputo, Sarah Witten, Sarah Ming and Yun Li contributed to this report. Josephine Rozzelle edited this version.

Disclosure: Versant is the parent company of CNBC and Fandango.