Here are five important things investors need to know to start their trading day:
1. Investors wait
2. Comcast to split
People visit the Top of the Rock observation deck behind the Comcast corporate logo atop 30 Rock in Rockefeller Center as seen from the Empire State Building on May 8, 2023, in New York City.
Gary Hershorn | Corbis News | Getty Images
Comcast have a plan to move forward With the development of cable network channels, people familiar with the matter told CNBC on Tuesday. A person familiar with the matter said networks included in the rotation include CNBC, MSNBC, E!, Syfy, Golf Channel, USA and Oxygen. The separation is expected to take about a year and will give the cable networks the option of merging with other networks or potentially being sold to private equity, one of the people said. An official announcement from the company could come as early as Wednesday.
Disclosure: Comcast owns NBCUniversal, CNBC’s parent company.
3. Missing the bull’s eye
A Target store in Albany, California, United States, on Monday, November 18, 2024.
David Paul Morris | Bloomberg | Getty Images
Target on Wednesday missed Wall Street third quarter earnings expected and recorded only a slight increase in customer traffic. The retailer cut its full-year guidance for adjusted earnings per share to a range of $8.30 to $8.90, down from $9.70 per share. expected in August. Target missed Wall Street earnings-per-share estimates by 20%, the most in two years, and saw revenue fall for the first time since August 2023.
4. Nuclear tensions increase
In this group photo distributed by Russian state agency Sputnik, Russian President Vladimir Putin chairs a Security Council meeting via videoconference in Moscow on November 8, 2024.
Vyacheslav Prokofyev | Afp | Getty Images
USA closed the embassy in Kiev on Wednesday warned that it “received specific information about a possible major air strike” amid rising tensions with Russia. The US Embassy said in a statement that it would close the building “out of an abundance of caution” and instruct embassy staff to shelter in place. Ukrainian press agencies and the Russian government Ukraine confirmed that it launched 6 long-range missiles made by the US against the Bryansk border region on Tuesday. Russian President Vladimir Putin on the same day signed a decree changing the parameters of when Russia can use nuclear weapons, causing concern in the global market.
5. Space scene
SpaceX’s Starship spacecraft and Super Heavy booster lift off during a test flight on Tuesday, November 19, 2024, at Starbase in Boca Chica.
Jon Shapley | Houston Chronicle | Hearst Newspapers | Getty Images
SpaceX launched the sixth test flight its Starship rocket on Tuesday, its fourth in 2024. The uncrewed Starship took off from the company’s facility near Brownsville, Texas, before intentionally crashing into the Indian Ocean about an hour later in the Indian Ocean. Starship is both the tallest and most powerful rocket ever launched, standing 397 feet tall and about 30 feet in diameter when stacked on its “Super Heavy” booster. President-elect Donald Trump attended the launchemphasized his increasingly close relationship with company CEO Elon Musk, who was tapped to co-lead a government performance management team.
— CNBC’s Brian Evans, Lillian Rizzo, Alex Sherman, Melissa Repko, Holly Ellyatt, Michael Sheetz and Lora Kolodny contributed to this report.
