5 Things to Know Before the Stock Market Opens on Friday

Here is the most important news investors need to start their trading day:

Ho Ho Ho? Rather, no, no, no. It’s been a terrible week for stocks and hopes of a Santa Claus rally are fading. US stocks are on the brink of their second straight negative week. Markets fell sharply on Thursday as investors digested Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell’s comments and hawkish outlook from the previous day. Sluggish pre-holiday retail sales didn’t help either, even though they signaled a slowdown in the economy, which is what the Fed wants as it tries to roll back inflation. Instead, it’s shaping up to be an environment where the Fed keeps rates higher for a longer period of time, regardless of what happens in the coming months. Read live market updates here.

Twitter suspended the accounts of several journalists and commentators reporting on the company and its billionaire owner tesla CEO Elon Musk. As of Thursday night, the social media platform had suspended Ryan Mac’s accounts from The New York Times, CNN’s Donie O’Sullivan, The Washington Post’s Drew Harwell, Mashable’s Matt Binder, The Intercept’s Micah Lee, Voice of America’s Steve Herman, as well as independent figures Aaron Rupar, Keith Olbermann and Tony Webster. Musk, a self-proclaimed “free speech absolutist,” suggested on Twitter that the suspensions of journalists were in the same vein of discipline against accounts that track flights, including one that tracked the whereabouts of the CEO’s private plane.

The Biden administration on Thursday unveiled restrictions against several mostly Chinese entities, including a chipmaker, over national security concerns. The chip company, Yangtze Memory Technologies Corporation, or YMTC, was already on a US trade blacklist. The move is aimed at hampering China’s ability to use “artificial intelligence, advanced computing and other powerful commercially available technologies for military modernization and human rights abuses,” according to a Commerce Department official. The move also comes as the administration tries to bolster semiconductor manufacturing on US soil.

Adobe posted quarterly earnings on Thursday that beat analysts’ expectations, while the design software maker stuck to its full-year forecast. The stock rose on the positive news, though it is down more than 40% on the year, much steeper than the decline in the broad S&P 500 index. “We delivered record operating cash flows with a focus on profitability,” the CEO said. of Adobe, Shantanu Narayen, on an earnings call. However, he also warned that a slowing economy could hurt the company and that Adobe would operate cautiously.

A not-so-surprising casualty of the rapid cooling off in the housing market is the home remodeling segment. Investment earnings, defined as when a home is bought and sold within a 12-month period, fell 18.4% in the third quarter from the second. That’s the biggest quarterly drop in more than a decade, according to real estate data provider ATTOM. It’s a double whammy for home lovers: Home prices are still high, but falling fast, while renovation costs have skyrocketed, too. “With buyer demand weakening, prices trending downwards in recent months, and funding rates significantly higher than at the beginning of the year, flippers face a much tougher environment today, and likely as well. they will in 2023,” Rick said. Sharga, executive vice president of market intelligence at ATTOM, in a statement.

– CNBC’s Alex Harring, Kevin Breuninger, Jordan Novet and Diana Olick contributed to this report.

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