5 things to know before the stock market opens Wednesday, November 8

Here are the most important news investors need to start their trading day:

The Nasdaq and S&P 500 had their longest winning streak in nearly two years after closing higher on Tuesday. Meanwhile, the Dow Jones is seeing its longest positive streak since July. The gains come as Treasury yields have retreated slightly from recent highs as the Federal Reserve continues to freeze interest rates and recent jobs data point to some economic slowdown. Investors are also keeping an eye on earnings, with a few big names left to report — including Disney on Wednesday, and Walmart and Target next week — as the season winds down. Follow live market updates.

Disney and its CEO Bob Iger are looking for a win. Iger has been back for about a year, and investors are eager to see if and when the company’s restructuring will actually pay off. Right now, they’re not impressed. The stock has fallen slightly over the year, compared to the broader market’s gains. This softness has brought activist investor Nelson Peltz and his company Trian back into the fray. Buoyed by shares owned by former Marvel chief Ike Perlmutter, a longtime Iger foe, Peltz and Trian are waiting to see what happens with Wednesday’s earnings report before making a move, CNBC’s Alex Sherman reports. If Peltz doesn’t like what he sees, he could launch a proxy fight for board seats. (Tune into CNBC’s “Closing Bell: Overtime” at 4:05 p.m. ET, when Julia Boorstin will interview Iger.)

Microsoft shares hit an all-time high on Tuesday, riding a wave of optimism about the company’s artificial intelligence prospects. Microsoft has invested $13 billion in startup OpenAI, whose ChatGPT implementation has become synonymous with the growing popularity of artificial intelligence. Wall Street sees the partnership as a boon for Microsoft’s Office products, as well as its Azure cloud business. In fact, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella this week touted Azure as a way to help developers using OpenAI technology get their products to market quickly. “What’s good for OpenAI is good for Azure in our view,” UBS analysts said in a note on Monday.

It seems simple enough: interest rates fall and mortgage demand rises. That’s what happened in recent days as mortgage rates saw their biggest one-week drop in more than a year, leading to the first jump in demand for home loans in a month, CNBC’s Diana Olek reports. The recent rise in Treasury yields has caused mortgage interest rates to rise, pushing the 30-year fixed yield to more than 8% at one point. However, yields fell, as the Federal Reserve held off on raising its benchmark interest rate again, and October jobs data came in lower than expected. It remains to be seen whether the housing market is able to generate any momentum. Prices are still high, and supply is still limited.

It’s been an off-year election, with the focus on state races, but Tuesday’s results will likely tell us a lot about what will happen next year, when President Joe Biden is expected to run for re-election. Biden’s poll numbers are off the charts, and there are growing calls for him to step down. but Strong democratic manifestations This week gave the president something to be proud of: Democratic governorship. Kentucky’s Andy Beshear won re-election in the red state, defeating a candidate endorsed by Biden’s likely rival Donald Trump, while Ohio voters enshrined the right to abortion. In Virginia, voters gave Democrats control of the House and Senate, dealing a blow to the Republican governor. Glenn Youngkin – who has been promoted as a potential Republican presidential candidate.

– CNBC’s Lisa Kailai Hahn, Alex Sherman, Jordan Novitt, Diana Olek and Spencer Kimball contributed to this report.

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