5 things to know before the stock market opens Wednesday

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

Macy’s beat Wall Street’s top- and bottom-line expectations for the third quarter this morning, posting its strongest growth in more than three years. The department store operator’s results are only one of several recent data points investors have received on the state of the U.S. consumer.

Here’s what to know:

• Despite the strong results, shares of Macy’s dropped more than 6% before the bell. The retailer displayed caution about the current quarter, citing consumer spending concerns and pressure from tariffs.
• Meanwhile, American Eagle Outfitters shares surged 12% after the apparel company posted better-than-expected earnings and provided upbeat guidance for fourth-quarter comparable sales.
• American Eagle said its ad campaigns with actress Sydney Sweeney and NFL star Travis Kelce are “attracting more customers,” though they’ve not yet been a major revenue driver.
• Sweeney is just one of several celebrities who has starred in a denim ad for a clothing brand. As CNBC’s Gabrielle Fonrouge and Natalie Rice report, companies are pulling out all the stops in hopes of winning the so-called “denim war.”
• Plus, the numbers are in: More than 202 million Americans shopped in the five-day period from Thanksgiving through Cyber Monday, the highest number on record since the National Retail Federation began tracking in 2017.
• Follow live markets updates here.

President Donald Trump has said his tariffs will bring production jobs back to the U.S. But as CNBC’s Jeff Cox reports, corporate executives and economic forecasters are concerned the opposite could happen.

Respondents to an Institute for Supply Management survey said the duties are pushing them to start reducing headcount and offering severance packages. “Conditions are more trying than during the coronavirus pandemic in terms of supply chain uncertainty,” one respondent said. A Federal Reserve report from last week also showed employment “declined slightly” over the past several weeks.

We’ll be keeping a close eye on the ADP private payrolls report due out this morning. Economists polled by Dow Jones are expecting growth of 40,000 jobs in November.

OpenAI is feeling the heat as rivals Alphabet and Anthropic gain ground in the artificial intelligence race. Earlier this week, CEO Sam Altman reportedly sent a staff memo laying out a “code red” effort to improve its ChatGPT bot.

It comes amid growing fanfare for Alphabet’s Gemini 3 model, which beat industry benchmarks. Anthropic, meanwhile, is reportedly readying for one of the largest IPOs ever.

As CNBC’s Pia Singh reports, Wall Street now sees Alphabet’s Google as the AI leader. Shares of Alphabet and its chip partner Broadcom have surged in recent weeks, while Nvidia and Microsoft — both business partners of OpenAI — pulled back.

Broadcast station owners are running toward industry consolidation, but they’re hitting roadblocks.

Nexstar is attempting to buy Tenga, while Sinclair made a hostile bid last week to acquire E.W. Scripps. These companies, like their larger media counterparts, have been trying to find ways to bolster their businesses as profitability tied to the traditional cable bundle shrinks.

But as CNBC’s Lillian Rizzo and Alex Sherman report, Sinclair’s attempt to scale up has been marred by family ownership challenges. Meanwhile, the Nexstar-Tenga deal requires changes to decades-old regulatory rules.

Boeing investors needed their seatbelts for yesterday’s ride.

Shares soared more than 10% — their best day since April — after CFO Jay Malave said the plane maker expects higher deliveries of its 737 and 787 jets in 2026. He also said the delayed certification for the 737-10 model could come later next year.

Malave notably said the higher deliveries will be “a big driver” for cash flow. As CNBC’s Laya Neelakandan notes, the Virginia-based company hasn’t posted an annual profit since 2018.