5 things to know before the stock market opens on Thursday

Happy Thursday. If our minds aren’t already messed up thanks to wildfire smoke and Cyclospora outbreaks, we might also need to worry about red artificial intelligence agents.

Stock futures are falling this morning as Wall Street declines.

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

shares of alphabet and tesla Stocks are falling before the bell as companies report their quarterly results on the first important earnings day of the season. Even though both tech giants posted higher sales, Wall Street seemed more focused and concerned about spending on artificial intelligence.

Here’s what you need to know:

Alphabet said its cloud revenue soared 82%, but Google’s parent company’s plans to increase capital spending again put downward pressure on the stock. Shares were down 5% before the bell, and Tesla significantly missed Wall Street’s earnings per share estimates for the second quarter. The company’s stock price fell more than 7% in extended trading. IBMThe stock soared last week after the earnings warning, but fell again this morning after the quarter’s results were weaker than expected. IBM CEO Arvind Krishna will appear on CNBC’s “Squawk on the Street” at 10 a.m. ET. Click here to watch live. Stock futures are trading lower this morning as investors analyze the latest reports. Follow live market updates here.

Oil prices rose nearly 5% this morning following reports of an attack on a tanker off the coast of Saudi Arabia. profit gained US West Texas Intermediate Crude Oil Futures prices exceeded $90 per barrel, the highest level in more than a month.

As CNBC’s Matt Peterson writes, rising gasoline and diesel prices will put a strain on Americans’ living standards this summer. The U.S. Energy Information Administration’s diesel index posted its biggest weekly increase since early March last week. This is a particularly worrying sign because diesel prices can affect prices across the economy.

The House of Representatives yesterday passed a bill that would prohibit members of Congress from purchasing individual stocks while in office. The bill, known as the “Stop Insider Trading Act,” is currently before the Senate.

As CNBC’s Justin Papp points out, there is broad public support for banning Congressional stock trading. But while more than a dozen Democrats voted to support the Republican-led bill, other party members said it did not go far enough to halt all stock trading.

Meanwhile, the Senate is considering an updated bill that would ban the president and other federal officials from sponsoring cryptocurrencies and other digital assets. According to Sen. Bernie Moreno (R-Ohio), President Donald Trump signed the bill’s ethics provisions.

European Union antitrust regulators have given the green light to the proposal paramount–warner bros discovery Yesterday’s merger. The approval comes as the deal faces delays in the U.S. due to a lawsuit from a group of state attorneys general.

The European Commission announced that Paramount has agreed to sell its stake in a European film distribution joint venture with United International Pictures to gain approval. The entertainment giant also said it would not sign a distribution deal with Universal on the continent for the next 10 years.

In other media news, comcast This morning, NBCUniversal’s Peacock streaming service announced it was profitable for the first time, beating expectations. The company is preparing to spin off its media business into a separate company.

Amazon is laying off more workers, this time in its generative artificial intelligence sector.

The e-commerce giant did not say how many employees it has or which parts of its AGI business were affected. “We’re focused on the initiatives that matter most to our customers, so we can move quickly on what matters,” an Amazon spokesperson told CNBC.

As CNBC’s Annie Palmer points out, the Washington-based company has downsized in recent years after a hiring surge during the pandemic. The layoffs also come as Amazon is spending large amounts of money to build out its AI infrastructure.

CNBC’s Steve Reisman analyzed the most common phrases Federal Reserve Chairman Kevin Warsh used in his last five public appearances. Here are three that come up one after the other and how many times Warsh used them.

“Family disputes”: 13 “First principles”: 11 “Inflation is a choice”: 6

— CNBC’s Samantha Subin, Mackenzie Sigalos, Jordan Nove, Jonathan Bunyan, Laura Kolodny, Tanaya Machel, Matt Peterson, Pippa Stevens, Spencer Kimball, Emily Wilkins, Lillian Rizzo, Annie Palmer and Steve Reisman contributed to this report.

Luke Fountain helped produce this newsletter. Josephine Rozzelle edited this version.