5 things to know before the stock market opens on Thursday

Here are the top stories investors need to start their trading day:

Investors loved what they heard from the debt ceiling negotiations in Washington on Wednesday (more below), if today’s stock market gains are any indication. The Dow Jones rose more than 400 points, while the Nasdaq and the S&P 500 both jumped more than 1%. Regional banks have also emerged after months of turmoil. On Thursday, markets will have a lot to digest, courtesy of Walmart’s earnings, as well as several economic data points, including weekly jobless claims, current home sales for April and this month’s Philadelphia Fed Manufacturing Survey. Follow live market updates.

At least President Joe Biden and House Speaker Kevin McCarthy agree on one thing: They believe the United States government will not default on its debt. Both leaders said the same on Wednesday, with just a few weeks left before the US runs out of cash to pay its bills. Negotiations between the White House and the McCarthy camp have intensified, and they will need to strike some kind of deal within days so that Congress can pass the bill and get it to Biden’s desk before default, which economists estimate could lead to millions of lost jobs and a huge hit to states’ GDP. United.

Wal-Mart boosted its outlook for the year as the largest U.S. retailer continued to benefit from consumer focus on essentials like groceries over items like televisions. The discount also beat Wall Street expectations for higher and lower earnings, with revenue jumping nearly 8% in the post-holiday quarter. US e-commerce sales jumped 27%. The findings came after retail giants Target and Home Depot warned customers were spending less on expensive and discretionary items and focusing more on essentials. Wal-Mart said it is seeing a similar dynamic as shoppers buy smaller package sizes of products, while the pace of spending slows as the quarter approaches.

Artificial intelligence will soon make its way into Google Ads and YouTube content. The tech giant owned by Alphabet has agreed to use generative artificial intelligence to automate ads and ad-supported services, CNBC’s Jennifer Elias reports, citing internal documents. Google is also testing a large language model called PaLM 2 to help create content for young people on YouTube. Google’s plans are the latest moves in the tech world to take advantage of its rapidly expanding artificial intelligence capabilities to boost stagnant revenues and dwindling profit margins, particularly as ad spending slows.

German financial giant Deutsche Bank has agreed to pay victims of late sexual predator Jeffrey Epstein $75 million to settle a lawsuit, Eamon Javers and Dan Mangan report on CNBC. The settlement comes as JPMorgan Chase, the largest bank in the United States, faces a separate lawsuit over its links to Epstein, who cultivated relationships with a variety of powerful and wealthy men and foundations, facilitating big money deals and philanthropic relationships, even after that. were convicted of sexual offences. JPMorgan said it was not responsible in the case. Epstein became a Deutsche Bank client in 2013, after JPMorgan ended its banking relationship with him.

Hakyung Kim, Emma Kinery, Christina Wilkie, Melissa Repko, Jennifer Elias, Dan Mangan and Eamon Javers contributed to this report.

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