5 things to know before the opening of the Stock Exchange Thursday, May 18

Here are the most important information investors need to start their trading day:

Investors liked what they heard coming out of the debt ceiling negotiations in Washington on Wednesday (see below), if the day’s stock market gains are any indication. The Dow Jones jumped more than 400 points, while the Nasdaq and S&P 500 each jumped more than 1%. Regional banks have also emerged after months of turbulence. Markets will still have a lot to digest on Thursday, thanks to Walmart earnings, as well as several economic data points, including weekly jobless claims, existing home sales for April and the Philadelphia Fed manufacturing survey. for this month. Follow live market updates.

At least President Joe Biden and House Speaker Kevin McCarthy agree on one thing: They believe the United States government will not default on its debt. The two leaders said so on Wednesday, with only weeks before the United States would run out of money to pay its bills. Negotiations between the White House and the McCarthy camp have intensified, and they will need to reach some sort of deal within days for Congress to pass a bill and get it to Biden’s office before a default, which , according to economists, could result in millions of lost jobs and a major blow to the US gross domestic product.

Walmart improved its outlook for the year as the largest U.S. retailer continued to benefit from consumers’ focus on basic necessities like groceries rather than items like televisions. The discounter also beat Wall Street expectations for revenue and profit, with revenue jumping nearly 8% for the post-holiday quarter. U.S. e-commerce sales jumped 27%. The findings came after fellow retail giants Target and Home Depot warned customers were spending less on big-ticket and discretionary items and focusing more on the essentials. Walmart said it was seeing a similar dynamic, with shoppers purchasing smaller packaging for products, while the pace of spending slowed as the quarter progressed.

Artificial intelligence will soon make its way into Google advertising and YouTube content. The Alphabet-owned tech giant has endorsed the use of generative AI to automate ads and ad-supported services, CNBC’s Jennifer Elias reports, citing internal documents. Google is also testing a great language model called PaLM 2 to help create youth content for YouTube. Google’s plans are the latest moves in the tech world to capitalize on rapidly expanding AI capabilities to bolster stagnant revenues and shrinking profit margins, especially when ad spending slows.

German financial giant Deutsche Bank has agreed to pay $75 million to victims of late sexual predator Jeffrey Epstein to settle a lawsuit, CNBC’s Eamon Javers and Dan Mangan report. The settlement comes as JPMorgan Chase, the largest bank in the United States, faces separate litigation over its ties to Epstein, who had cultivated relationships with a variety of wealthy and powerful men and institutions, facilitating significant transactions and philanthropic connections, even after he had been convicted of sex crimes. JPMorgan said it was not responsible in this matter. Epstein became a Deutsche Bank client in 2013, after JPMorgan concluded its banking relationship with him.

– CNBC’s Hakyung Kim, Emma Kinery, Christina Wilkie, Melissa Repko, Jennifer Elias, Dan Mangan and Eamon Javers contributed to this report.

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