5 things to know before the stock market opens Thursday

Here are the most important news items that investors need to start their trading day:

Stock futures rose Thursday as investors cheered Nvidia’s strong earnings report. S&P 500 futures were up 0.5% while Nasdaq 100 futures climbed 1.1%. Dow Jones Industrial Average futures were less rosy, however, losing 38 points, or 0.1%. “The entire tech sector and overall market was waiting for Nvidia with this being the purest and best barometer for AI demand and the results/guidance were a ‘drop the mic’ moment in our opinion that will have a ripple impact for the tech space for the rest of the year,” said Dan Ives, senior equity research analyst at Wedbush Securities. Other chipmakers, including Taiwan Semiconductor, AMD and Marvell Technology saw their stocks get a boost along with Nvidia. Follow live market updates.

Nvidia beat analysts’ estimates for its fiscal second quarter and issued strong guidance on Wednesday after the bell. The company reported a staggering 422% increase in net income over the same time last year, hitting $6.7 billion in the quarter. Nvidia’s overall sales grew 171% on an annual basis to $13.51 billion, and it expects demand to remain high. Its graphics processors have become core to the AI boom and it hopes to ramp up supply to distribute more in the coming months. The stock added 6% in extended trading Wednesday on top of the more than 200% it had added for the year.

Eight candidates took the stage Wednesday evening in the first Republican presidential primary debate of the election cycle, with a notable absence. Ron DeSantis, Vivek Ramaswamy, Mike Pence, Nikki Haley, Tim Scott, Chris Christie, Doug Burgum and Asa Hutchinson all qualified. But frontrunner Donald Trump, who was also eligible, refused to participate in the debate, opting instead to debut a taped interview with former Fox News host Tucker Carlson. Trump still loomed large in the conversation, and the candidates were split on if they would support the former president if he became the GOP nominee again. They also argued about abortion, climate change and previous leadership experience.

There’s a new pumpkin in town. Starbucks is celebrating 20 years of its pumpkin spice latte by adding an iced pumpkin cream chai latte to the mix this year. It joins a seasonal menu that already hosts the PSL and the pumpkin cream cold brew, which has been around for five years. The new iced drink comes as Starbucks customers, and especially Gen Z buyers, increasingly choose iced drinks over hot ones. Starbucks’ more upscale Reserve locations, which also serve alcohol, will see new, special pumpkin spice drinks as well, including a pumpkin spice espresso martini and a pumpkin spice whiskey barrel-aged iced latte.

The head of the Wagner Russian mercenary group, Yevgeny Prigozhin, was believed to be killed in a plane crash on Wednesday, according to Russian media reports. He was listed as a passenger on a business jet that crashed in the Tver region northwest of Moscow, killing all 10 people aboard, Russian authorities said. It wasn’t immediately clear if Prigozhin was actually on board the aircraft, but the crash came two months after he led a short-lived revolt against Russian President Vladimir Putin. Prigozhin had largely disappeared from public view after the mutiny but resurfaced days before the plane crash in what was believed to be his first video address.

— CNBC’s Brian Evans, Kif Leswing, Emma Kinery, Kevin Breuninger, Dan Mangan, Amanda Macias, Brian Schwartz, Amelia Lucas and Natasha Turak contributed to this report.

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