5 things to know before the market opens Thursday July 29

Here are the most important news, trends and analysis investors need to start their trading day:

Dow futures rose more than 100 points on Thursday, a day after the 30 stock average, the S&P 500 fell slightly and the Nasdaq rose slightly. All three benchmarks finished less than 1% of Monday’s record after Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell told his press conference after the meeting that substantial economic improvement would be needed for the central bank is starting to reverse its easy money policies. On the tax front, the Senate voted Wednesday night in favor of a bipartisan infrastructure plan, a crucial step towards the Democrats’ adoption of their broad economic program. Dow Merck stock fell into pre-market after the drugs marker on Thursday matched estimates with quarterly earnings and beat earnings expectations. Amazon announces its profits after the bell Thursday.

In the latest snapshot of the economic recovery from the Covid pandemic, the Commerce Department said Thursday morning that its first glimpse of second-quarter gross domestic product had grown at an annual rate of 6.5%, a big failure compared to growth estimates of 8.4%.

The Labor Department also reported ahead of the opening bell on Wall Street that initial jobless claims stood at 400,000 last week, slightly worse than expected. The level of the previous week has been revised to 424,000. Initial claims for the week ended July 10 out of 368,000 matched last month’s Covid-era low.

Robinhood, whose stock trading app has gained popularity with retail investors, is expected to debut on the Nasdaq on Thursday. The initial public offering was priced at the lower end of the range at $ 38 each Wednesday night, raising around $ 2 billion and valuing the company at around $ 32 billion. However, the business is not without controversy.

• Earlier this year, during the initial stock market frenzy, Robinhood angered some investors and lawmakers when it restricted trading in some popular stocks following a 10-fold increase in filing requirements at its clearinghouse.
• The company revealed this week that it has received inquiries from U.S. regulators about whether its employees traded in GameStop and AMC Entertainment shares before trading restrictions were placed in late January.
• In June, Robinhood agreed to pay nearly $ 70 million to settle an investigation by Wall Street’s own regulator.

Facebook shares fell about 3.5% in Thursday’s pre-release, the morning after the social network announced that revenue growth would slow in the second half of the year. Facebook cited a change in Apple’s privacy policies that it said will hurt the social network’s ability to target ads. In the second quarter, Facebook reported earnings of $ 3.61 per share on revenue of $ 29.08 billion. Both have exceeded estimates. Daily active users and monthly active users each met expectations.

Facebook will require workers returning to its U.S. offices to be vaccinated, the company also said on Wednesday. “How we implement this policy will depend on local conditions and regulations,” Vice President of Personnel Lori Goler said in a statement. Facebook will create processes for those who cannot be vaccinated for medical or other reasons, Goler said, adding that the company will continue to evaluate its approach outside of the United States.

Disney has changed the mask policy at its US-based theme parks following new guidance from health officials and government. Starting Friday, the company will require all guests, regardless of their immunization status, to wear masks in indoor locations at Walt Disney World Resort in Florida and Disneyland Resort in California. Children under two are exempt from this mandate.

Apple will require from Thursday that vaccinated and unvaccinated customers and staff wear masks at many of its U.S. retail stores, a person familiar with the matter told CNBC’s Josh Lipton. Earlier this week, Apple CEO Tim Cook told CNBC the company pushed back plans to return to the office for corporate employees from September to October and could be pushed back again.

– Reuters and CNBC Peter Schacknow contributed to this report. Follow all market actions like a pro on CNBC Pro. Get the latest pandemic news with CNBC’s coronavirus coverage.