Five Things You Should Know Before the Market Opens

Expectedly, the Labor Department's most recent inflation report will indicate a modest increase in prices in December. Meanwhile, cryptocurrency stocks surged following the SEC's approval of multiple spot Bitcoin ETFs. What today's investors should know is as follows.

1. December's CPI report is expected to show a little increase in inflation.

Stock futures were mixed ahead of the 8:30 a.m. ET release of the Consumer Price Index (CPI), which is expected to show the annual rate of inflation ticking higher in December to 3.2% from 3.1%. Also at that time, initial jobless claims are projected to come in at 210,000 for the week ending Jan. 6, above the 202,000 from the prior week. Cleveland Fed President Loretta Mester will also make a TV appearance at 11:30 a.m. ET and Richmond Fed President Tom Barkin speaks at 12:40 p.m. ET.1

2. After the SEC approved Spot Bitcoin ETFs, cryptocurrency stocks rose. Pre-market trading saw a sharp increase in cryptocurrency stocks following the Securities and Exchange Commission's (SEC) decision to approve 11 Bitcoin spot exchange-traded funds (ETFs), thereby providing investors with an additional means of investing in the cryptocurrency without physically possessing the commodity. Trading for the ETFs will start today. Early trading saw gains of roughly 6% for Marathon Digital (MARA), Riot Platforms (RIOT), Coinbase (COIN), and Bitcoin investor Microstrategy (MSTR).

3. Citigroup Alerts of Charges Associated with Currency Decline and Restructure Prior to the bank's earnings release on Friday, Citigroup (C) cautioned shareholders that charges related to a decline in the value of the Argentine peso, in addition to greater reorganization expenses, would affect profits. A couple hundred million dollars is roughly how much the company's chief financial officer had estimated these expenses to reach, but the bank disclosed $880 million in currency losses and $780 million in restructuring charges instead. Citigroup's stock experienced a 1.3% decrease in pre-market trading.

4. Google Reports Hardware Unit and Voice Assistant Layoffs The parent company of Google, Alphabet (GOOGL), announced that it was letting go of hundreds of employees from a number of teams, including the hardware team that created the Pixel, Nest, and Fitbit, as well as the Voice Assistant and augmented reality (AR) divisions. The number of workers impacted by the layoffs was not disclosed by the company. Alphabet's stock increased by 0.5% in pre-market trading. 3. Reuters. "Hundreds are laid off by Google from engineering, hardware, and assistant teams."

5. Sinks at Home by KB Shares of KB house (KBH) dropped 2.5% in pre-market trade on the company's announcement of 3,407 house deliveries for the fourth quarter, which beat estimates but was 10% fewer than the same period last year. The quarter's average home sale price was $487,300, which was less than the $510,400 average from the previous year. Although lower than the same period last year, the home builder's adjusted fourth-quarter profits of $1.85 per share on revenue of $1.67 billion beat estimates of $1.70 earnings per share on $1.63 billion in revenue.


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