5 things to know before the stock market opens Tuesday – CNBC

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

1. Short stuff

Stock futures were slightly higher Tuesday to start a shortened trading week. Exchanges were closed Monday for the Presidents Day holiday. The major averages are coming off a winning week and are within reach of record highs. The Dow Jones Industrial Average and the Nasdaq Composite are about 1% off their recent records. The S&P 500 is just 0.2% below its record. Follow live markets updates.

2. D.C. dismissals

An organizational flag flies outside of the Office of Personnel Management in Washington, D.C. on February 7, 2025 as demonstrators gather to protest federal layoffs and demand the termination of Elon Musk from the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE).

Bryan Dozier | Afp | Getty Images

Layoffs are sweeping D.C. Jobless filings in the nation’s capital surged over the past week as President Donald Trump and Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency advisory board ordered layoffs across the government. Since Trump took office, nearly 4,000 workers in Washington, D.C., have filed for unemployment insurance. The administration also laid off hundreds of employees at the CDC on Saturday and began firing FAA workers on Sunday, just weeks after a fatal midair collision at Washington, D.C.’s Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport. Employees at the Food and Drug Administration were also served notices of their layoffs.

3. Slow start

A help wanted sign is displayed outside of a restaurant in Manhattan on January 05, 2024 in New York City.

Spencer Platt | Getty Images

Freezing temperatures, wildfires and consumer caution are all playing a hand in slow sales for restaurants to start 2025. Though many restaurant chains saw growth in the fourth quarter of last year, that trend reversed in January. “I think consumers are still wary,” Subway U.S. President Doug Fry told CNBC. “I think they’re waiting to see how the economy goes, but they’re also not willing to sacrifice that quality and portion size and the quantity of what they’re eating.” Here are the chains plotting a comeback, with expectations for sales to improve later this year.

4. Product launch

The Grok logo is being displayed on a smartphone with Xai visible in the background in this photo illustration on April 1, 2024.

Jonathan Raa | Nurphoto | Getty Images

Musk’s xAI is out with its third artificial intelligence model, Grok 3, which he previously said would be “scary smart.” On Tuesday, xAI said Grok 3 could outperform offerings from DeepSeek and OpenAI. It’ll be available for premium X users in the U.S. starting Tuesday and via a separate app and web version. “We should emphasize that this is kind of a beta, meaning that you should expect some imperfections at first, but we will improve it rapidly, almost every day,” Musk said during a demo.

5. Word search

U.S. President Donald Trump speaks, as he signs an executive order in the Oval Office, at the White House in Washington, D.C., U.S. Feb. 14, 2025.

Nathan Howard | Reuters

Trump’s policies are on the tip of Wall Street’s tongue. A CNBC analysis found words like “tariff” and “immigration” are cropping up with higher frequency on earnings calls of S&P 500-listed firms. Executives at companies like Mettler-Toledo, Marathon Petroleum and Martin Marietta Materials have called out uncertainty stemming from Trump’s changes. Not getting much mention on earnings calls? “Trump” with a capital T. Many instances of “trump” used in call transcripts reviewed by CNBC were uses of the verb, not the proper noun.

– CNBC’s Sarah Min, Jeff Cox, Amelia Lucas, Dylan Butts and Alex Harring along with NBC News and the Associated Press contributed to this report.