5 issues to know earlier than the market opens Friday | USAEMALL.com

Happy Friday. The U.S. launched 60 more trade investigations last night, as the Trump administration continues to look for ways to replace the president’s now-overturned duties. The new probes focus on forced labor trade practices.

Stock futures are higher this morning after a negative session.

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

Oil prices rose and stocks sank yesterday after Iran’s new supreme leader, Mojtaba Khamenei, said the Strait of Hormuz should stay closed “to pressure the enemy.” Brent crude climbed 9.22% to close above $100 per barrel, its first close at that level since 2022.

Here’s what to know:

• U.S. Energy Secretary Chris Wright told CNBC on Thursday that the U.S. Navy is “not ready” to escort oil tankers through the Strait: “It’ll happen relatively soon but it can’t happen now.”
• Later, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said in an interview with Sky News that the U.S. Navy will escort ships as soon as “militarily possible…perhaps with an international coalition.”
• Bessent also said in an X post last night that the U.S. would temporarily allow countries to purchase Russian oil that’s already at sea.
• U.S. Central Command said this morning that four crew members of a refueling aircraft were killed yesterday when their plane crashed in western Iraq. The incident was not caused by hostile fire or friendly fire, it said.
• Oil’s rally continued to pressure stocks on Thursday. The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell more than 700 points to close under 47,000 for the first time this year. All three major indexes are on track to close the week in the red.
• Follow live market updates here.

Hopes for interest rate cuts this year are dwindling, as the Iran war raises both energy prices and inflation concerns.

Before the conflict erupted nearly two weeks ago, traders were expecting the Federal Reserve to cut rates by a quarter percentage point in June and September, with possibly a third reduction before the end of the year. Now, the CME Group’s FedWatch tool shows fed funds futures traders anticipate only one cut in December. The Fed is set to issue its next rate decision on March 18, and traders are all but certain the central bank will stay on hold.

Market watchers will get another read on inflation at 8:30 a.m. ET with the release of January’s personal consumption expenditures price index. Economists are expecting the report, the Fed’s preferred inflation gauge, to show headline PCE increased 0.3% month over month and 2.9% annually.

Shares of Adobe are down more than 7% in premarket trading after the software company said yesterday that its CEO, Shantanu Narayen, will depart once his successor has been named.

The announcement came in tandem with Adobe’s first-quarter results, which beat analysts’ expectations on the top and bottom lines. The company reported a 12% increase in revenue compared with a year ago and issued better-than-expected guidance for the current quarter.

Narayen wasn’t the only tech exec to announce a career update yesterday. Rajesh Jha, Microsoft’s top Office chief, will retire this summer after a 35-year stint with the company.

OpenAI CEO Sam Altman met with several lawmakers on Capitol Hill yesterday, two weeks after the artificial intelligence company inked a deal with the Department of Defense.

Sen. Mark Kelly, D-Ariz., told CNBC’s Emily Wilkins that he asked Altman “serious questions” about OpenAI’s contract with the Pentagon and AI’s role in warfare. “There’s got to be guardrails in place, and we’ve got to make sure that we’re always thinking about the Constitution and making sure that we comply with it,” Kelly said.

Elsewhere on the Hill, the Senate on Thursday passed the largest housing affordability bill in 30 years. The legislation faces an uphill battle in the House, though: GOP leaders have indicated that the lower chamber won’t take up the version of the bill passed by the Senate.

The New York Yankees are still baseball’s most valuable franchise, according to CNBC’s Official MLB Team Valuations for 2026. Worth $9 billion, the team becomes only the tenth sports franchise — and the only MLB franchise — to boast a valuation that large.

But two consecutive World Series wins and superstar two-way player Shohei Ohtani are helping the Los Angeles Dodgers close the gap. Sources told CNBC that the Dodgers brought in $950 million in revenue last season, nearly $200 million more than the Yankees. The team’s valuation now stands at $8 billion.

Here’s what you might have missed this week.

— CNBC’s Emma Graham, Sawdah Bhaimiya, Holly Ellyatt, Spencer Kimball, Dan Mangan, Lim Hui Jie, Chloe Taylor, Sean Conlon, Pia Singh, Jeff Cox, Jordan Novet, Ashley Capoot, Emily Wilkins and Michael Ozanian contributed to this report. Melodie Warner edited this edition.