5 things to know before the stock market opens Thursday

Happy Thursday. Nike’s first pickleball deal has me thinking I should fish my paddles out of the closet and start practicing.

I’ll be spending this evening with some of our readers at CNBC Pro Live at the New York Stock Exchange, so you’ll hear from my colleague, Josephine, in tomorrow’s edition. If you’re one of tonight’s attendees, please say hello.

S&P 500 futures are higher this morning following yesterday’s negative session.

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

Despite another encouraging inflation report, the S&P 500 closed lower yesterday. Losses in both bank and technology stocks pulled the benchmark into the red for a second straight day.

Here’s what to know:

Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley reported fourth-quarter earnings this morning, rounding out a marquee week for big bank reports.

Goldman earned $14.01 per share on $13.45 billion in revenue. It was not immediately clear if those figures were comparable to Wall Street’s respective estimates of $11.67 per share and $13.79 billion. Shares oscillated in premarket trading following the release.

Morgan Stanley, meanwhile, beat analysts’ forecasts on both lines for the quarter. Shares rose more than 2% before the bell.

A White House meeting between top administration officials and leaders from Denmark and Greenland yesterday appeared to do little to ease the tension between the U.S. and the two countries.

Ahead of the talks, Trump said on social media that anything less than U.S. control of Greenland would be “unacceptable.” But Danish Foreign Affairs Minister Lars Lokke Rasmussen Denmark said after the meeting that any plans that don’t respect Greenland’s right to self-determination are “totally unacceptable.” He said Denmark and the U.S. would “agree to disagree” and “continue to talk.”

Greenland foreign minister Vivian Matzfeldt said that the self-governing Danish territory wants “to strengthen our cooperation” with the U.S., “but that doesn’t mean that we want to be owned by [the] United States.” Five NATO nations said they would send a small number of troops to Greenland for a joint military exercise following the White House meeting.

Netflix will likely alter its acquisition offer for Warner Bros. Discovery’s assets to be an all-cash deal, CNBC’s David Faber reported yesterday.

Such an adjustment would allow WBD shareholders to vote to approve the offer quicker, according to sources familiar with the matter. That means the vote could be moved up from the current expectation of spring or early summer to as soon as late February or early March.

The report came just two days after Paramount Skydance announced it was suing WBD amid its own attempt to acquire the media giant via hostile takeover. Paramount also said it planned to launch a proxy fight.

Trump yesterday confirmed that the U.S. would approve sales of Nvidia’s H200 AI chip to China, with a previously announced 25% cut for the U.S. government. “It’s not the highest level, but it’s a pretty good level,” Trump said of the chips, “and China wants them.”

But as CNBC’s Kif Leswing points out, it’s not clear whether China will accept the chips, which are less powerful than other Nvidia models. Reuters reported Wednesday morning that Chinese customs told agents that the H200 chips weren’t permitted to enter the country, sending shares of Nvidia and other chip stocks lower.

Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., told CNBC’s “Squawk Box” yesterday that Trump called her to discuss his idea for a credit card interest rate cap. Watch the interview here.

CNBC’s Jeff Cox, Sarah Min, Spencer Kimball, Sean Conlon, Pia Singh, Hugh Son, Kevin Breuninger, Sam Meredith, Lillian Rizzo, Kif Leswing and Garrett Downs contributed to this report. Josephine Rozzelle edited this edition.