5 things to know before the stock market opens Thursday, February 9

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

It’s Bob Iger’s Magic Kingdom, and we just live there. Disney’s new/old CEO didn’t take long to put his stamp on the company after returning late last year after an absence. During the company’s earnings call Wednesday, Iger unveiled a new corporate structure that makes ESPN its own unit, $5.5 billion in planned cost cuts and 7,000 layoffs. Disney has been the best performer in the Dow since the return of Iger in November, and the announcement is just what Wall Street is looking for, as the shares rose in off-hours trading. Even Trian Nelson Peltz, an activist firm engaged in a proxy fight with Disney’s board, was impressed. “We’re happy that Disney is listening,” Trian told CNBC.

Tune in: Iger will sit down for an exclusive interview with CNBC’s David Faber at 9 a.m. ET Thursday.

Stocks are aiming to bounce back Thursday after a down session that saw the Dow, S&P 500 and Nasdaq all slide. Beyond Disney, earnings continue to roll in. Mattel, MGM and Emphasize all reported after bell Wednesday, and PepsiCo results are sent before there is open. Investors are still in a holding pattern, otherwise they are waiting for the next policy steps of the Federal Reserve, especially now that Chairman Jerome Powell is talking about the “disinflation” factor in the economy. Weekly jobless claims will come out at 8:30 a.m. ET, as well. Read live market updates.

Investors seemed unimpressed with Google’s Wednesday event to show off its Bard artificial intelligence chatbot. Shares from the parent company Alphabet slid 7% during the trading session. It’s the latest stumble for online search leader Google. competition Microsoft has extended its maneuver with support for OpenAI’s ChatGPT, which has captured the buzz in the early days of the AI ​​war. Also this week, Microsoft announced that it will use ChatGPT to enhance the Bing search engine and the Edge internet browser. Still, while analysts get the impression that Google is rushing to take some of the heat from Microsoft, they also think that the company’s AI offering may be just as good as its competitors.

Southwest Airlines will never forget the holidays. Neither will the government. The Biden administration is investigating the snafu, which caused more than 16,000 flight cancellations between December 21 and 31. And on Thursday, the airline’s chief operating officer will appear before senators on Capitol Hill to take heat on behalf of the company. “In hindsight, we don’t have enough winter operational resilience,” Chief Operating Officer Andrew Watterson said in written testimony, seen by CNBC, before a Senate Commerce Committee hearing. The hearing is scheduled to begin at 10 a.m. ET. Despite all the controversy, however, the shares of Southwest are still up more than 4% this year to Thursday, due to continuous demand and high tickets buoy the airline’s results.

Santa Claus does not deliver for toy manufacturers. Mattel posted earnings Wednesday, and they weren’t pretty. The maker of Barbie and Hot Wheels posted top- and bottom-line numbers that fell sharply below Wall Street expectations as inflation weighed on consumer spending during the holiday quarter. Sales of Fisher Price dolls, action figures and children’s toys all dragged down results. “Our fourth quarter results were below our expectations, as the macro-economic environment was more challenging than anticipated,” CEO Ynon Kreiz said on Wednesday. Mattel’s lackluster results come about two weeks after its rivals Hasbro warned of a weak holiday season and said it would cut 15% of its workforce.

– CNBC’s Sarah Whitten, Lillian Rizzo, Tanaya Macheel, Ashley Capoot, Leslie Josephs and Rebecca Picciotto contributed to this report.

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