5 things to know before the stock market opens on Friday February 24

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

Investors are watching consumer spending data, due Friday morning, for another piece of evidence in the Federal Reserve’s continued efforts to bring inflation down. The major averages are all heading for a down week, despite gains on Thursday. In the first four days of the week, the S&P 500 is down 1.64%, set for its worst week since Dec. 16; the Dow Jones Industrial Average is down nearly 1.99%, heading into its fourth consecutive week of decline; and the Nasdaq Composite is down 1.67%, on pace for its second negative week in three. “We’re still looking at the barrel of a gun that hasn’t figured out what the consumer may or may not have the strength for for the rest of the year,” SoFi’s Liz Young said Thursday on the “Halftime Report. from CNBC. Follow live stock market updates.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy marked a year since his country was invaded by Russia with a message of resilience: “On February 24, millions of us made a choice. Not a white flag, but a blue and yellow flag. No flight, but from the front. Facing the enemy. Resistance and struggle,” Zelenskyy wrote in a post on Telegram. Thousands of people have died as a result of the conflict and millions more have become refugees. ‘unit. And it’s a year of our invincibility. We know this will be the year of our victory,” he said. Read live updates on the war in Ukraine.

Boeing is again halting deliveries of its 787 Dreamliners so it can perform more analysis on a fuselage component, according to the company and the Federal Aviation Administration. The company had just resumed aircraft deliveries in August – after the second pause in less than a year. The company doesn’t expect this latest issue to require further work on the 787s, but it won’t be able to resume deliveries until it proves to the FAA that the fuselage issue is resolved. Production will continue in the meantime and there is no immediate risk to flight safety associated with the issue, Boeing said.

Warner Bros. Discovery warned of a weaker advertising market in its latest quarterly report on Thursday, posting a big loss per share and falling short of Wall Street expectations. While revenues from the company’s streaming segment were up, boosted by an increase in subscriptions, Warner Bros.’ network television segment. fell 6%. CEO David Zaslav spoke about the company’s earnings call on a “very challenging” macroeconomic environment and said, “We assume things will improve in the second half” of 2023. The company owns TV stations cable like TNT, TBS and Discovery and said the weaker advertising trends it first spotted last summer had been exacerbated in the last quarter.

Retirement savings took a hit last year. According to a new report from Fidelity Investments, the nation’s largest provider of 401(k) plans, the average account balance ended 2022 down 23% from a year earlier at $103,900. Fidelity found that savers paid the same amount and few borrowed. In addition, sales increased in the fourth quarter. “Everyone is feeling financial pressure – there’s a lot of uncertainty in the markets and the economy,” said Mike Shamrell, vice president of thought leadership at Fidelity. “Don’t let short-term economic events derail your long-term retirement savings efforts.”

– CNBC’s Sarah Min, Natasha Turak, Gabrielle Fonrouge, Lillian Rizzo and Jessica Dickler contributed to this report.

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