5 things to know before the stock market opens Thursday, May 23

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

Stocks fell Wednesday as investors worried about persistent inflation after the latest release of minutes from the Federal Reserve’s most recent meeting (more on that below). The Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped 201.95 points, or 0.51%, and had its worst session of the month. The S&P 500, meanwhile, fell 0.27% and the Nasdaq Composite slipped 0.18%. But things were looking up Thursday morning as futures tied to all three indexes were higher, with Nasdaq-100 futures climbing 0.8% as Wall Street rode the momentum from market bellwether Nvidia. Follow live market updates.

The wins keep coming for Nvidia. Shares of the chipmaker rallied and topped $1,000 for the first time in extended trading after the company reported fiscal first-quarter results that beat analyst estimates. The chipmaker reported a whopping 262% jump in sales and announced a 10-for-1 stock split. And it shows no signs of slowdown, as its revenue more than tripled for the quarter and its data center business grew by more than 400% from a year earlier. Nvidia’s strong results suggest that demand remains strong for its artificial intelligence chips — and for the AI rally in general.

Federal Reserve officials are growing more concerned about their progress — or the lack thereof — on inflation. In the Fed minutes from April 30-May 1, which were released Wednesday, members indicated that they lacked confidence in cutting interest rates. They voted unanimously to keep the benchmark short-term borrowing rate within the range of 5.25%-5.5%, where it has been since July 2023. Even though participants observed inflation easing over the past year, there ultimately had been “a lack of further progress” in recent months toward the committee’s 2% inflation target, the minutes’ summary stated. The minutes come after Fed Governor Christopher Waller said on Tuesday that he needs to see “several months” of progress before voting to cut rates.

Amazon is giving Alexa an upgrade. The decade-old voice assistant will now be enhanced with generative artificial intelligence in an attempt by the company to make it more conversational, two sources familiar with the matter told CNBC. Amazon also plans to charge users a monthly subscription fee with the offering, and it won’t be included in Amazon Prime subscriptions. Such an upgrade — which is set to come this year — may position the tech and retail giant to better compete with companies like Google and OpenAI, which have launched AI-powered chatbots and since announced similar AI-powered voice features.

General Motors has officially rolled out an all-electric version of its iconic Chevrolet Equinox – which has been part of the company’s lineup for two decades. The crossover EV has gone on sale with higher-priced models starting at roughly $43,000 to $51,100. The entry-level Equinox LT model is expected to launch later this year and will start around $35,000. GM’s move comes as demand for EVs has been slower than expected, making this latest rollout a test to see whether the company’s new “Ultium” EV technologies, and the overall mass-market EV adoption, will actually stick the landing.

— CNBC’s Hakyung Kim, Samantha Subin, Kif Leswing, Jeff Cox, Kate Rooney and Michael Wayland contributed to this report.

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