5 things to know before the stock market opens on Thursday October 6th

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

After two rapid rallies, US stock markets turned negative again on Wednesday. Towards the end of the day, the Bulls put up a small fight, but it wasn’t enough to continue the winning streak. The common take on Wall Street is that overall we’re still in a stock fever, especially as the Federal Reserve aggressively pushes rate hikes to cool inflation. Earnings season starts in earnest next week, but until then, investors’ eyes are on the jobs market. According to the ADP, private companies added 208,000 jobs last month, beating estimates. The government, meanwhile, will report monthly employment data on Friday. A hot labor market is likely to fuel the Fed’s rationale for another rate hike. Read live market updates here.

OPEC+ oil-producing nations on Wednesday agreed to the group’s biggest supply cut since 2020 to limit supply as prices have fallen amid growing concerns over a slowdown in global demand. The decision came at a moment of political tension. The United States is in the midst of a tense election campaign that will determine the balance of power in Congress. The move drew anger from President Joe Biden’s administration and could result in a major backlash for key OPEC nation Saudi Arabia, which also considers itself a US ally. The White House said a “disappointed” Biden would consult with Congress on ways to limit OPEC’s power in deciding energy prices. “Today’s dog whistle can be interpreted as a sign that the President will not necessarily stand in the way of a vote on the bill that would declare OPEC a cartel and subject its members to the Sherman antitrust rules,” the strategists at RBC Capital said. Follow the oil price movements here.

Elon Musk and Twitter have not reached a final agreement, but there have been several important developments behind the scenes of their negotiations. The judge leading the lawsuit between the two sides in the Delaware Chancery Court said Wednesday that she is still preparing for the trial, which is scheduled to begin Oct. 17, as neither side has asked for a delay. According to Reuters, Musk’s testimony in the case was scheduled for Thursday, but both sides agreed to postpone it while talks continue. The news service also said, citing sources, Apollo Global Management and Sixth Street Partners have ended talks to jointly provide up to $1 billion to support the $44 billion deal.

A federal jury found Joe Sullivan, a former top security chief at Uber, guilty of covering up a 2016 cybersecurity breach that affected the personal information of 57 million drivers and customers. “Sullivan worked diligently to hide the data breach from the Federal Trade Commission and took steps to prevent the hackers from being caught,” said Stephanie Hinds, US Attorney for the Northern District of California. Uber has not disclosed the incident for a year. It’s rare for cybersecurity executives to be prosecuted in similar circumstances, so the case could mark a turning point. When Sullivan was indicted in 2020, prosecutors accused him of paying the criminals $100,000 in bitcoin while having them sign non-disclosure agreements that falsely said they did not steal any data during the hack. Uber had previously paid nearly $150 million to settle claims that it had taken too long to uncover the breach. The company reached a settlement in July to avoid criminal charges and agreed to cooperate in prosecuting Sullivan. He faces a possible five-year prison sentence.

Shocking news from Thailand: A gunman killed at least 24 children and 11 adults in an attack that started on a day care center in the northeast of the country. The suspect opened fire, killing several people as he drove away before returning home to kill his wife and child, police said. He then took his own life, they added. Authorities identified the man as a former police officer. According to the Associated Press, firearm deaths in Thailand are lower than in countries like the United States and Brazil, but higher than in places with strict gun laws like Singapore and Japan. The rate of firearm-related deaths in 2019 was about 4 per 100,000, compared to about 11 per 100,000 in the US and almost 23 per 100,000 in Brazil,” the news service wrote.

– CNBC’s Carmen Reinicke, Sam Meredith, Natasha Turak and Holly Ellyatt contributed to this report.

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