5 things to know before the stock market opens Monday

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• It’s a big earnings week.
• Tesla stock sank after the company cut prices on its EVs.
• The Bitcoin network has completed its fourth “halving.”

Here are the most important news items that investors need to start their trading day:

1. Stock struggles

The S&P 500 and the Nasdaq Composite both had tough runs last week, falling 3.05% and 5.52%, respectively. The Nasdaq lost 2% on Friday alone, led down by Nvidia, which dropped 10%. The Dow Jones Industrial Average, which has less tech exposure than the other two indexes, ended the week little changed. This week, investors will be watching major economic updates and earnings, with GDP due out on Thursday and a key inflation reading coming on Friday. Follow live market updates.

2. Buckle your seat belts

It’s a big week for earnings, with about 30% of the S&P 500 slated to report results this week. So far, more than 73% of the companies that already reported this quarter have beaten estimates. But overall Q1 growth is on pace to remain flat year on year, according to FactSet data. Some of the biggest companies in the world will be reporting earnings this week and hope to impress investors, including Meta Platforms, Tesla and General Motors. Here are the earnings to watch this week:

• Tuesday: General Motors, UPS, PepsiCo, GE Aerospace, RTX Corporation, JetBlue (before the bell); Tesla, Mattel, Enphase Energy (after the bell)
• Wednesday: Boeing, Biogen, Hasbro, Humana (before the bell); Meta Platforms, Ford, IBM, Chipotle Mexican Grill (after the bell)
• Thursday: Comcast, Merck, Bristol-Myers Squibb, Southwest Air, American Airlines, IMAX (before the bell); Microsoft, Alphabet, Intel, Atlassian, Snap, Capital One, Roku (after the bell)
• Friday: Chevron, Exxon Mobil (before the bell)

3. Competitive pricing

Tesla shares dropped 3% in premarket trading Monday after the electric vehicle giant cut prices for its EVs in several major markets, including China and Germany. Rival Chinese EV maker Li Auto sank to an 11-month low after it also lowered prices. Tesla lowered its prices by 14,000 yuan, or about $1,900. Li Auto’s price cuts for certain models were reportedly up to 30,000 yuan, or roughly $4,000. Competition in the Chinese EV space has been ramping up, with automakers introducing new tech and competitive pricing.

4. The halving

The Bitcoin network completed its fourth “halving” Friday evening, which means the rewards to miners were reduced to 3.125 from 6.25. The price of bitcoin was volatile leading up to the event, but many investors expect gains in the months ahead, based on what happened after previous halvings. Such incidents happen every four years and are meant to stave off inflation. Bitcoin miners — including roughly a dozen publicly traded miners on the network and thousands of smaller, private ones — are constantly racing to process transactions and get paid in new bitcoin, which means they’ll be the first to feel the impact of the halving.

5. Trump trial

Opening statements are set to begin Monday morning in the New York criminal hush money trial of former president Donald Trump. The jury process wrapped up Friday, as 12 jurors and six alternates were selected for the case after four days. Trump is charged with 34 counts of falsifying business records as part of a scheme to cover up a hush money payment to porn star Stormy Daniels, who says she had sex with Trump years ago while he was married. The payment from Trump’s then-lawyer Michael Cohen was allegedly intended to keep unflattering information from leaking out during the 2016 presidential election. Trump has said the six-week trial is keeping him from campaigning in this year’s race against President Joe Biden.

— CNBC’s Jesse Pound, Fred Imbert, Shreyashi Sanyal, Tanaya Macheel, MacKenzie Sigalos, Kevin Breuninger and Reuters contributed to this report.

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