5 things to know before the stock market opens Thursday, December 28

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

The S&P 500 is still chasing its all-time high, having gained 0.14% on Wednesday. That index is now 0.5% away from its closing record of 4,796.56. Meanwhile, the Dow Jones Industrial Average notched its own record close of 37,656.52 after advancing 0.3% during the session. The Nasdaq Composite added 0.16% to end the day at 15,099.18. Sam Stovall, chief investment strategist at CFRA, said the market is eager to score a new all-time high for the S&P 500 before year-end, “but at the same time, once the market does set a new all-time high, it’s probably vulnerable to a post-high pause.” Follow live market updates.

The New York Times is suing Microsoft and ChatGPT-creator OpenAI claiming the publisher’s intellectual property was improperly used to train large language models. The Times is seeking to hold Microsoft and OpenAI accountable for what it says is “billions of dollars in statutory and actual damages” for the “unlawful copying and use of The Times’s uniquely valuable works.” It’s the latest in a string of complaints against the use of publicly available information to train AI tools as the segment has boomed in recent months.

A U.S. appeals court dealt Apple a win Wednesday, temporarily halting an import ban on the tech giant’s popular smartwatches. The decision means Apple will be able to sell the devices despite a patent dispute with medical tech company Masimo, which claims the watches infringe on protected blood oxygen level sensing technology. The decision pauses the ban through Jan. 10. Apple said in a statement the impacted Watch models would be available to purchase both in stores and online as of Thursday.

With conflicts in Ukraine and Gaza gripping global attention, experts are warning security threats elsewhere may be falling under the radar. The International Rescue Committee released an emergency watchlist for 2024, noting 20 countries it says are at the greatest risk of security deterioration. These countries — many of them on the African continent — account for about 10% of the world’s population but roughly 70% of its displaced persons. They also account for approximately 86% of global humanitarian need. “The headlines today are rightly dominated by the crisis in Gaza. There is good reason for that — it is currently the most dangerous place in the world to be a civilian,” said IRC CEO David Miliband. “But the Watchlist is a vital reminder that other parts of the world are on fire as well. … We must be able to address more than one crisis at once.”

Millions of student borrowers aren’t making their monthly loan payments, according to the Department of Education. Federal student loan payments resumed in October after years of a pandemic-induced pause and a failed attempt by President Joe Biden to grant near-blanket forgiveness. Roughly 40% of people missed that first payment, the Education Department said. “Faced with the impossible choice of feeding their kids, keeping a roof over their head or throwing an average of $400 a month into the Department of Education incinerator, borrowers are rightly choosing to keep themselves and their families financially afloat,” said Astra Taylor, co-founder of the Debt Collective, a union for debtors.

– CNBC’s Samantha Subin, Alex Harring, Ryan Browne, Kif Leswing, Sam Meredith and Annie Nova contributed to this report.

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