5 things to know before the stock market opens Monday, July 8

Here are five key things investors need to know to start the trading day:

The S&P 500 hit its 34th record close of the year on Friday. Its rally for 2024 has grown to 16.7%. The Nasdaq Composite also closed at a new high, led by Tesla and Nvidia, and its year-to-date gain has reached 22.3%. The Dow Jones Industrial Average, meanwhile, added 0.17%, or 67.87 points. Friday’s rally came as the latest jobs report reignited hopes for rate cuts from the Federal Reserve. Investors will be looking ahead to more inflation data this week: The June consumer price index is set to be released Thursday, while the producer price index data will be released Friday. Follow live market updates.

Boeing agreed to plead guilty to a criminal fraud charge tied to two 737 Max crashes in which 346 people died, the Department of Justice said Sunday. U.S. prosecutors had said the company had violated a 2021 settlement in which it was shielded from prosecution. Under the new plea deal, Boeing agreed to pay a $243.6 million fine and have an independent monitor installed to oversee compliance at the company for three years. The deal, which requires the approval of a judge, would also require the company to invest at least $455 million in compliance and safety programs, and Boeing agreed that its board of directors would meet with families of the victims. The deal spares Boeing from trial.

And we’re back. David Ellison’s Skydance Media and Paramount Global announced late Sunday that they agreed to merge after months of back and forth. Shari Redstone, Paramount’s controlling shareholder, will sell her family’s stake in the company in a complicated transaction that will culminate in a merger. The news comes just weeks after an earlier deal had died, in part over what a person familiar with the matter said were concerns by Redstone that the deal was altered too far. The new talks sweetened the deal for Redstone, increasing the family’s payout to $1.75 billion and enhancing legal protections from possible shareholder lawsuits, Reuters reported. One word of warning: The deal also gives Paramount 45 days to find a better offer, so there could still be more drama ahead.

President Joe Biden is entering a big week as the House and the Senate return from a holiday recess and pressure mounts for him to drop out of the race. Several House Democrats have called for Biden to step down after a disastrous debate performance against his opponent, former President Donald Trump. Biden gave a highly anticipated ABC News interview on Friday night — the first since the debate — in which he defended his mental health and vowed to stay in the race. Sen. Chris Murphy, D-Conn., a close ally of the president, said Sunday on CNN that “the clock is ticking” and noted that the interview “did not answer all the questions that people in my state have.” NBC reported that Biden’s future as the leader of the party was heavily called into question during a call convened by House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., with lawmakers on Sunday afternoon.

Tesla stock rose on Friday, officially wiping out its losses for 2024. It had a dismal start to the year, falling as low as $138.80 in April. But it rose 27% last week, closing on Friday at $251.55 a share. The surge was sparked by a better-than-expected deliveries report for the second quarter that was released on Tuesday. Deliveries fell 4.8% from a year earlier, but they topped Wall Street estimates and were less of a drop-off than the company’s first-quarter decline. Tesla has been offering extensive discounts and incentives since last year to attract customers to its aging lineup of electric vehicles.

— CNBC’s Pia Singh, Leslie Josephs, Lillian Rizzo, Alex Sherman Rebecca Picciotto and Lora Kolodny; NBC’s Julie Tsirkin, Scott Wong, Rebecca Kaplan and Syedah Asghar; and Reuters contributed to this report.

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