5 things to know before the stock market opens Thursday

Happy Thursday. The personal consumption expenditures price index — aka the Federal Reserve’s favorite inflation gauge — is due out at 8:30 a.m. ET. The report is even more important following the Fed’s interest rate decision last week.

Stock futures are higher this morning. The S&P 500 posted a modestly negative session yesterday.

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

Shares of Micron are up more than 17% before the bell following a much better-than-expected earnings report yesterday. The memory maker said its revenue more than quadrupled in the fiscal third quarter, easily beating analysts’ estimates, and forecasted higher current-quarter profits than anticipated.

Here’s what to know:

• Micron also said that its gross margin rose to 84.9%. That’s the highest percentage of any major U.S. tech company, topping Meta’s 81.9% and Nvidia’s 75%.
• With its double-digit gain overnight, the stock is poised to open today’s trading session at a new all-time high. Micron shares have been on a more than 700% run over the last 12 months.
• Other chip names are rising in sympathy this morning following a Micron-led sell-off in the sector earlier this week. The tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite is coming off three straight down days.
• Shares of fellow chipmaker Qualcomm are 10% higher extended trading after the company nearly doubled its projected revenue from its non-handset division in the 2029 fiscal year.
• Follow live market updates here.

President Donald Trump abruptly canceled the signing of a bipartisan affordable housing bill yesterday, a little over an hour before he was set to sign the legislation at the Capitol. In a Truth Social post, Trump said he would not sign the bill until Congress passed the SAVE America Act — a controversial voter identification bill.

Hours later, Trump attended a lunch on the Hill with Senate Republicans. That meeting became contentious, CNBC’s Justin Papp reports, though one attendee said the housing bill wasn’t discussed. Trump has 10 days to either sign or veto the legislation, which aims to increase the supply and affordability of housing.

Oil prices have now erased their wartime gains as more tankers begin moving through the Strait of Hormuz.

Trade-tracking firm Kpler said more than 20 tankers carrying about 35 million barrels of crude have transited Hormuz since the U.S. and Iran reached an agreement to reopen the key shipping route. Daily oil shipments in the strait have risen to about 4.8 million barrels, though that’s still lower than the prewar export level of 15 million barrels per day.

Energy Secretary Chris Wright said yesterday that Iran would no longer be able to close the Strait of Hormuz, citing U.S. military escorts of commercial ships. Wright will join CNBC’s “Squawk on the Street” today at 10:30 a.m. ET. Watch live on CNBC or CNBC+.

Toyota is gaining ground on General Motors. A new forecast from Cox Automotive shows that the Japanese automaker is expected to see its U.S. sales rise by almost 1% in the first half of this year, while GM’s sales are projected to fall more than 7%.

As CNBC’s Michael Wayland reports, Toyota is benefiting from the increasing popularity of hybrid vehicles, where it’s long been a leader. GM, on the other hand, bet heavily on all-electric vehicles and referred to hybrids as transitional technology.

“GM may be looking over their shoulder,” Cox Automotive’s Charlie Chesbrough said. He said he doesn’t currently expect Toyota to eclipse GM, but called the trend is “concerning” for America’s largest automaker.

Retail investors aren’t feeling frosty about Wendy’s. The fast-food company appears to be the latest meme stock, rocketing 25% higher in Wednesday’s session.

Data shows Wendy’s was one of the most mentioned stocks on Reddit trading forums before and during the surge. Net inflows from small scale traders in yesterday’s session blew recent averages for the stock out of the water.

As CNBC’s Yun Li writes, yesterday’s action mirrors the retail-driven short squeezes seen during the 2021 meme stock craze. But Wendy’s shares are up another 7% in premarket trading this morning, indicating that mom-and-pop investors aren’t done just yet.