Here are five key things investors need to know to start the trading day:
1. April showers
The S&P 500 eked out a gain Wednesday, but still posted its third consecutive losing month. The broad market index rose 0.15% in volatile trading, while the Dow Jones Industrial Average also had a modest gain, adding 141.74 points, or 0.35%. The Nasdaq Composite, meanwhile, slipped 0.09%. The Dow also fell for the month, while the Nasdaq advanced nearly 0.9% in April. Also on Wednesday, the Commerce Department reported that the U.S. economy contracted in the first three months of 2025, largely due to a surge in imports ahead of President Donald Trump’s tariffs. Follow live market updates.
2. From Micro to Meta
Satya Nadella, chairman and chief executive officer of Microsoft Corp., speaks during the virtual Meta Connect event in New York on Oct. 11, 2022.
Michael Nagle | Bloomberg | Getty Images
Microsoft‘s first-quarter earnings were better than Wall Street expected, led by its Azure cloud business, which saw its revenue grow 33%. Microsoft shares jumped nearly 9% in premarket trading Thursday as the company issued strong guidance. Fellow tech titan Meta also beat first-quarter earnings expectations, and the social media company gave second-quarter guidance that was in line with Wall Street’s expectations. Meta shares were up more than 5% in premarket trading. Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg said the company is “well positioned to navigate the macroeconomic uncertainty.”
3. McDonald’s earnings
McDonald’s Drive Thru sign seen outside a McDonald’s fast food restaurant, in Edmonton, Alberta, on April 19, 2025.
Artur Widak | Nurphoto | Getty Images
McDonald’s reported another quarter of declining same-store sales to start 2025. The fast-food giant said Thursday that chain-wide same-store sales fell 1%, hurt in part by comparisons to Leap Day during the year-ago quarter. In the U.S., the declines were even sharper, off 3.6%. Wall Street analysts were expecting McDonald’s domestic same-store sales to drop 1.7%, according to StreetAccount estimates. Back in February, the company’s CFO warned the first quarter would be a low point for the metric, but the macroenvironment has only worsened since.
4. Spending big to go small
Todd Niggeling delivers packages for Amazon in Sioux City, Iowa, on Tuesday, May 2, 2023. Niggeling delivers packages through Amazon’s delivery hub program in which Amazon is using small businesses as centralized drop-off points and paying business owners to drive the last mile to deliver those packages instead.
Rebecca S. Gratz | The Washington Post | Getty Images
Amazon is planning to spend $4 billion by the end of next year to grow its presence in rural parts of the U.S. and cut down delivery times in small towns. The plans would add more than 200 delivery stations, tripling the size of Amazon’s rural delivery network. The company has been working to speed up deliveries by building a network of warehouses nationwide. After making two-day shipping a standard, it now aims to get packages to customers in one day or even within a few hours.
5. Apple’s Apps
Under the EU’s Digital Markets Act, Apple is required to allow developers to freely inform customers of alternative offers outside its App Store.
Gabby Jones | Bloomberg via Getty Images
Apple willfully violated and ignored a 2021 decision that came from the Epic Games case over Apple’s App Store policies and whether they stifle competition, a federal judge found. The judge also said Apple Vice President of Finance Alex Roman “outright lied” to the court about whether the tech company had put a 27% fee on some purchases linked to its App Store. Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers referred the matter to U.S. attorneys, who will decide whether to pursue criminal contempt proceedings on both Roman and Apple. Apple said it would appeal the order.
— CNBC’s Sean Conlon, Jeff Cox, Annie Palmer, Jordan Novet, Jonathan Vanian, Sara Salinas, Amelia Lucas and Kif Leswing contributed to this report.
