Trump defends economic system, CPI report returns, monster Medline IPO, and extra in Morning Squawk | USAEMALL.com

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

President Donald Trump, with approval ratings sagging, touted his economic and other policies in a White House address, taking jabs at his predecessor, former President Joe Biden. “I inherited a mess,” Trump said, referring to when he returned to the White House last January. “And I am fixing it.”

Here’s what to know:

• Trump projected “the largest tax refund season of all time” thanks to the tax and spending package he signed into law over the summer.
• The president also announced a “warrior dividend” of $1,776 for 1,450,000 U.S. military members, that’s set to cost about $2.5 billion.
• The address came as Trump’s approval ratings are sagging across the board, on issues ranging from immigration to inflation, and as Republicans seek to hold on to majorities in the House and Senate in the 2026 midterms.
• Obamacare subsidies extension will go to a vote after 4 Republicans bucked leadership.
• Meanwhile, FBI Deputy Director Dan Bongino said he will step down in January.
• The U.S. government admitted fault, citing missteps by members of the U.S. Army and the FAA, in the fatal collision of an Army Black Hawk Helicopter with an arriving American Airlines regional jet in January that took 67 lives.

The November consumer price index report, the first since the record government shutdown ended last month, is due out at 8:30 a.m. ET.

Economists surveyed by Dow Jones expect it to show a 12-month inflation rate of 3.1%. When excluding food and energy, core CPI is forecast to post an annual rate of 3.0%.

The Bureau of Labor Statistics has said the release “will not include 1-month percent changes for November 2025 where the October 2025 data are missing,” because the agency canceled the October inflation report in late November, weeks before the Federal Reserve’s final meeting of the year.

Stock futures were ticking up ahead of the return of the monthly inflation report.

Micron Technology jumped 10% in premarket trading after its latest results and forecast topped Wall Street estimates. Shares of Olive Garden parent Darden rose premarket on an improved sales outlook.

The S&P 500 and Dow Jones Industrial Average ended the previous session lower for the fourth day in a row. Oracle had dropped more than 5% after the Financial Times reported that the cloud infrastructure company’s primary investor pulled out of its $10 billion Michigan data center.

Trump Media and Technology Group on Thursday announced a merger agreement valued at more than $6 billion with TAE Technologies, a fusion power company, showing the company that operates President Donald Trump‘s Truth Social platform is branching out even further.

Shares of medical supply giant Medline, which makes everything from hospital beds to scrubs, jumped 41% in their Nasdaq debut Wednesday as the world’s biggest IPO of the year. The stock opened at $35, up from its $29 IPO price, and ended its first trading day at $41 a share, bringing Medline’s market capitalization to roughly $54 billion.

Just over 200 IPOs have priced this year despite market volatility in the spring, driven by President Donald Trump’s sweeping tariffs and the longest U.S. government shutdown in history in the fall. It is the largest U.S. listing since Rivian‘s $13.7 billion deal in November 2021, according to data compiled by CNBC.

Delta Air Lines President Glen Hauenstein, who helped shape Delta into the industry’s profit leader, will retire at the end of February. Hauenstein, who joined Delta 20 years ago, led the airline’s lucrative embrace of travelers willing to spend more for a more luxurious trip, or at least a few more inches of legroom on board.

Some of Delta’s strategies became too successful for customers’ tastes, such as its popular airport SkyClubs, which Delta recently raised the entry bar.

And the winner is…YouTube. In a major shift away from traditional television, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences announced Wednesday it’s signed a multiyear deal with the Google-owned service to stream the Oscars starting in 2029 and running through 2033, red carpet coverage included.

— CNBC’s Sean Conlon, Justin Papp, Kevin Breuninger, Amelia Lucas, Dan Mangan, Garrett Downs, Annika Kim Constantino, Pia Singh and Sarah Whitten contributed to this report. Melodie Warner edited this edition.