5 things to know before the stock market opens Wednesday, February 16

Listed below are an important information, traits and evaluation that traders want to begin their buying and selling day:

The federal government’s knowledge on January retail gross sales, scheduled to be launched at 8:30 a.m. ET, is anticipated to indicate a 2.1% improve in contrast with December’s 1.9% decline. Merchants will look to the gross sales report back to see how surging inflation is likely to be affecting Individuals’ spending habits. Final week, worries about excessive costs despatched shopper sentiment to greater than 10-year lows in early February.

• The funding group hopes to study extra about what the Fed plans to do to combat inflation when minutes from the central financial institution’s January assembly are launched at 2 p.m. ET. The markets count on the central financial institution to hike rates of interest seven occasions this 12 months, beginning subsequent month.

Regardless of NATO claiming to see no indicators of drawdowns at Ukraine’s border, Russia mentioned Wednesday it is returning extra troops and weapons to their bases. Moscow’s Tuesday announcement of a pullback was met with skepticism all over the world. President Joe Biden warned “an invasion stays distinctly doable,” whereas urging Russia to decide on a diplomatic path to resolving the battle.

• Moscow, which has repeatedly insisted it has no plans to invade Ukraine, is demanding, amongst different issues, that the previous Soviet republic by no means be permitted to affix NATO. The U.S. and NATO have mentioned that such a request from Russia can’t be accommodated.

Moderna CEO Stephane Bancel advised CNBC on Wednesday that it is “cheap” to imagine that the ultimate phases of the Covid pandemic could also be approaching. Bancel mentioned there’s an 80% probability that because the omicron variant evolves it could turn out to be “much less and fewer virulent.” However he additionally sees a “20% state of affairs the place we see a subsequent mutation, which is extra virulent than omicron.”

• New every day U.S. Covid circumstances continued to plummet, with the newest seven-day common dropping 44% to 136,190, in response to knowledge compiled by Johns Hopkins College. Whereas new every day U.S. deaths from Covid dropped 8% from per week in the past, fatalities remained elevated, averaging 2,264 over the previous seven days.

On the identical day it reported lower-than-expected quarterly earnings and better-than-expected income and streaming video subscriber additions, ViacomCBS introduced after the bell Tuesday a company title change to Paramount International. The transfer, efficient Wednesday, ties the corporate nearer to its Paramount+ streaming service and takes benefit of Paramount’s model recognition. The brand new Paramount International moniker additionally comes with recent tickers, beginning Thursday, together with a change to PARAA for Class A shares from VIACA.

— The Related Press contributed to this report. Enroll now for the CNBC Investing Membership to comply with Jim Cramer’s each inventory transfer. Comply with the broader market motion like a professional on CNBC Professional.