5 things to know before the stock market opens Thursday, December 29

A trader works on the trading floor on the Latest York Stock Exchange (NYSE), December 14, 2022.

Andrew Kelly | Reuters

Listed below are crucial news items that investors need to begin their trading day:

1. Two more days of this …

Welcome to the penultimate trading day of 2022. Even when these next two days are good – and the past few days would indicate otherwise – U.S. stocks are set to complete their worst 12 months since 2008. Back then, the economy was mired in an enormous financial crisis, Barack Obama had just been elected president, and James Cameron’s first “Avatar” movie was still a 12 months from being released. Stocks are coming off a down Wednesday, which saw all three major indices slide greater than 1%. Apple, specifically, was a giant drag, because it hit a recent 52-week low. Read live markets updates here.

2. Musk addresses Tesla stock meltdown

Win Mcnamee | Getty Images News | Getty Images

Elon Musk has been wrapped up in Twitter since he accomplished his $44 billion acquisition in October, but he took a while Wednesday to jot down to his employees at Tesla. The transient note acted as a rallying cry, urging employees to do whatever they will to get cars to customers before the top of the 12 months. He ended it with a postscript urging employees to not be “too bothered by stock market craziness,” an acknowledgment of Tesla shares’ recent sharp declines. “Long-term, I think very much that Tesla can be the most dear company on Earth!” he wrote. Tesla shares rose greater than 3% Wednesday, but they’re down 68% this 12 months.

3. Media’s brutal 12 months

The Netflix logo is seen on a TV distant controller, on this illustration taken January 20, 2022.

Dado Ruvic | Reuters

Irrespective of where media firms looked this 12 months, there was bad news. Netflix actually lost subscribers for the primary time in years, while Disney acknowledged that its subscriber growth goals were too ambitious. Paramount struggled, too, despite having the 12 months’s hottest movie (“Top Gun: Maverick”) and the most important television franchise (“Yellowstone”). Warner Media merged with Discovery to create the debt-loaded Warner Bros. Discovery, which cut costs (and jobs) at a rapid clip. A shriveling ad market weighed on the TV business across the board, despite a lift from midterm campaign political spending, and twine cutting picked up at pay TV providers. Guess what? 2023 doesn’t look so hot, either. Read more from CNBC’s Lillian Rizzo.

4. ‘Avatar’ catches a wave

Avatar: The Way of Water

Courtesy Disney Co.

Speaking of Disney, its big year-end release is indeed delivering on the box office. James Cameron’s “Avatar: The Way of Water” spooked some investors when it opened two weeks ago with a less-than-expected $134 million in North America. Since then, the movie’s performance has resembled that of its predecessor, 2009’s “Avatar,” which steadily piled up money on its solution to change into the highest-grossing movie of all time. “The Way of Water” is off to an excellent higher start, making greater than $1 billion in 14 days, five days ahead of the pace of the unique. However the sequel will likely not match the primary movie’s haul, largely attributable to China. The market was instrumental to the 2009 movie’s success, but this time, Covid is rampaging through the country, filling up hospitals and keeping theaters largely empty.

5. Russia bombards Ukraine

Ukrainian air defence system intercepts a rocket launched by Russian forces in Kyiv, Ukraine on December 29, 2022.

Anadolu Agency | Anadolu Agency | Getty Images

Russia on Thursday morning launched greater than 100 missiles at Ukraine, hitting capital Kyiv and other cities, in accordance with Reuters. Authorities cut power within the Odesa and Dnipropetrovsk regions as Ukraine looks to avoid further damage to its energy infrastructure. The most recent Russian barrage got here as Vladimir Putin’s government rejected a peace proposal from Ukraine. Moscow wants Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s government to acknowledge the regions of the country Russia has illegally annexed, but that is a non-starter for Ukraine.

– CNBC’s Sarah Min, Lora Kolodny, Lillian Rizzo and Sarah Whitten contributed to this report.

— Follow broader market motion like a professional on CNBC Pro.