5 things to know before the stock market opens Tuesday

TUE, NOV 29, 2022

MORNING SQUAWK

1. Bounce back?

Wall Street is looking for a rebound after Monday's rout, which came as investors watched protests in China against the government's harsh anti-Covid measures. China's economy is already prone to fits and starts due to President Xi Jinping's "zero Covid" policy, which relies heavily on mass quarantines, and mass unrest would create a new level of uncertainty for the nation of 1.4 billion people, as well as for global markets. This week, investors are also preparing to digest a new wave of earnings (Hewlett Packard Enterprise reports after the bell Tuesday) and the November jobs report, which lands Friday. Read live markets updates here.

2. Musk vs. Apple

Now Elon Musk wants to take on Apple. The Twitter owner tweeted Monday that the iPhone maker threatened to boot his social media app off its App Store, which, if it happened, would kill one of Twitter's major distribution channels. Apple declined to comment on Musk's claims. For all his talk about free speech and censorship, though, Musk's main gripe with Apple is likely more about money than expression. The billionaire also took aim at Apple's policy requiring that app makers pay a 15% to 30% cut to the company on digital goods sold through their applications. Musk, eager to find a source of revenue for Twitter as ad dollars have dried up, wants to charge subscription fees for certain services on Twitter.

3. Disney sticks with its hiring freeze

Bob Iger on Monday made a splashy return to the Disney lot in Burbank, California, where he held his first town hall since he was re-hired as CEO just over a week ago. He spent a lot of time focusing on the company's culture, which many at Disney felt suffered under previous CEO Bob Chapek, and touting its creative powers. But Iger also spoke about nitty gritty moves that will affect the company's day-to-day reality. Iger said Disney would keep in place the hiring freeze implemented by Chapek, and that he would take a good look at the company's cost structure. Chapek, in a memo about cost cutting he had sent days before he was ousted, had indicated layoffs were going to be part of the process. Now it's up to Iger, who has built up a great deal of goodwill among employees, to make that call.

4. BlockFi files for bankruptcy

Another one bites the dust. BlockFi on Monday became the latest crypto firm to go bust, as the fallout from FTX's failure spreads. The company had already halted withdrawals and warned of its exposure to FTX and sister trading firm Alameda Research. BlockFi's bankruptcy filing on Monday noted that it had an outstanding loan of $275 million to FTX US, the American unit of FTX. Previously valued at $4.8 billion, BlockFi had avoided bankruptcy in July with the help of a $400 million revolving credit facility from FTX, whose founder, Sam Bankman-Fried, had styled himself as a crypto white knight. That all came crumbling down earlier this month, however, as FTX itself filed for bankruptcy.

5. Ukraine's cold reality

It's getting colder and colder in Ukraine, with temperatures forecast to fall below freezing this week, as the country grapples with widespread blackouts and other infrastructure failures caused by Russian missile strikes. Now the pressure is on the United States and the rest of NATO to support Ukraine on the homefront in addition to providing weapons for the battlefield. "President Putin is trying to use winter as a weapon of war," NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said Tuesday, pledging to help Ukraine through the next few bitter months. Read live war updates here.

– CNBC's Sarah Min, Kif Leswing, Alex Sherman, MacKenzie Sigalos, Rohan Goswami, Lillian Rizzo and Holly Ellyatt contributed to this report.

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