Here are the most important news items that investors need to start their trading day:
1. Steady as she goes
Markets have been fairly muted this week, and Friday is so far no exception. Futures tied to the S&P 500 and Nasdaq Composite were largely flat in morning trading, while Dow Jones Industrial Average futures traded about 0.2% lower. With the debt ceiling debacle in the rearview, and no major economic data out this week, Wall Street has taken a bit of a breather. Through Thursday’s closer, the S&P 500 is up nearly 0.3%, the Dow has risen 0.2% and the Nasdaq Composite is down just 0.02%. Follow live market updates.
2. Round two
Former President Donald Trump has been indicted on seven federal criminal counts related to classified documents he kept at his Mar-a-Lago home in Florida. He’ll appear in a Miami court on Tuesday. It’s the second criminal indictment for the Republican former president and 2024 candidate, after a New York state grand jury brought charges of falsifying business records. Trump, who revealed the latest indictment himself via a social media post, has maintained his innocence in both cases and called the documents investigation and resulting charges “election interference at the highest level.” Follow live updates on the documents case and indictment.
3. GM jumps on the Tesla train
General Motors is the latest legacy automaker to partner with EV leader Tesla to utilize its Supercharger network. Under the agreement, which very closely resembles a partnership struck last month between Tesla and Ford, GM owners will have access to 12,000 Tesla Superchargers across the country starting next year. GM will also begin building Tesla’s charging tech into its EVs starting in 2025. The pair of partnerships is a massive step toward a unified charging standard for U.S. electric vehicles. All three CEOs — GM’s Mary Barra, Ford’s Jim Farley and Tesla’s Elon Musk — have spoken out in a support of streamlining charging infrastructure to advance the mass adoption of EVs in the U.S.
4. Smoke moves south
Wildfire smoke that’s blanketed the Northeast U.S. for the better part of this week has made its way south, clouding Philadelphia; Washington, D.C.; and parts of the Carolinas. Thousands of flights were delayed between Wednesday and Thursday as the haze cut visibility. Sporting events were canceled, some classrooms turned to online learning to save school children the commute and health officials continue to warn about the unhealthy conditions. President Joe Biden on Thursday reassured the country that the U.S. is assisting Canada to fight the wildfires that are causing the smoke, sending firefighters and aid north of the border. The National Weather Service is forecasting the smoke will largely move out of the East Coast on Friday, though it’s likely to hit the Ohio River Valley that day.
5. Staying afloat
The U.S. has been barreling toward recession, or maybe standing at the cliff, or maybe already on the decline — for months now, depending on who you ask. But ask the American consumer and by some definitions, all is well. New home sales, leisure travel and job growth have remained bright spots in an otherwise shaky economy, helping to stave off a more significant reset. “The US and global expansions stand on solid ground, and fears of an imminent recession look overblown,” Marko Kolanovic, global market strategist at JPMorgan, said in a note to clients this week. The question now is, how long can a resilient consumer keep spending in the face of still-rising interest rates and evolving post-pandemic priorities?
