5 things to know before the stock market opens

Here are five key things investors need to know to start the trading day:

The S&P 500 and the Nasdaq Composite posted gains on Tuesday, ending three days of declines. The broad market index moved 0.39% higher to close the session at 5,469.30, while the tech-heavy Nasdaq gained 1.26% to close at 17,717.65. Both indexes were led by a rebound in Nvidia, which rose 6.7% after falling more than 6% in the previous session. On the other hand, the Dow Jones Industrial Average moved 0.76% lower to close at 39,112.16. Follow live market updates.

It seems like the Fedex arrow is right on target. The company topped earnings and revenue estimates for its fiscal fourth quarter after the bell Tuesday, with shares darting upwards in extended trading on the results. Fedex posted earnings of $5.94 per share on revenue of $22.1 billion. Analysts polled by LSEG were expecting $5.35 per share on revenue of $22.07 billion. This comes after FedEx enacted the DRIVE transformation program in an effort to cut costs and consolidate the business. In an earnings call with analysts, CEO Raj Subramaniam said that the company is on track to achieve its $4 billion cost-cutting goal and even expects another $2 billion from the planned consolidation of its air and ground services.

Volkswagen is shifting into high gear with electric vehicle startup Rivian. The company is taking a $1 billion stake in the startup and plans to establish a joint venture with it, which could raise its investment to up to $5 billion by 2026. The announcement from the companies comes two days before Rivian’s investor day, with the startup facing increasing pressure over its recent losses. Rivian, which posted a $1.45 billion loss in the first quarter this year, has been looking to cut costs over the past few months, taking measures like laying off employees and pausing construction on its new factory in Georgia. Stopping construction of that site is anticipated to save the company more than $2.25 billion in capital spending.

Home prices have hit yet another record. In April, prices rose 6.3% compared to April of last year, according to the S&P CoreLogic Case-Shiller National Home Price Index. This is the second month in a row that the national index has increased at least 1% over its previous all-time high. Compared with early 2020, home prices are 47% higher, and the median sale price has become five times more than the median household income. Moreover, prices are 26% higher for renters than they were in 2020. This is despite the fact that rent growth has been slowing because of a rise in new apartment units in 2024. Now, half of all renter households are considered “cost burdened,” according to the HJCH, as they’re spending more than 30% of their income on housing.

Americans are smashing YouTube’s like button. According to Nielsen’s monthly “The Gauge” report, YouTube made up 9.7% of all U.S. viewership on connected and traditional TVs last month. This is the largest share of TV for a streaming platform that the report has ever seen. Behind YouTube is Netflix, which saw 7.6% of all viewership. YouTube’s total viewership among just streamers nears 25% market share. This has led some legacy media and entertainment companies to devise certain strategies to deal with the platform’s dominance. According to people familiar with the matter, leaders at Disney, for example, are actively considering adding user-generated content to Disney+, among others. Others like Netflix and Warner Bros. Discovery are shifting their attention toward the 90% of the viewing world that YouTube doesn’t dominate.

— CNBC’s Hakyung Kim, Samantha Subin, Ece Yildirim, Diana Olick and Alex Sherman contributed to this report.

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