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Happy Thursday. I'm back after a long weekend skiing in Colorado, just in time for yesterday's Federal Reserve meeting.
Stock futures are lower this morning. The three major indexes are coming off a losing day.
Here are five key things investors need to know to start the trading day:
1. Going steady
As was widely expected, the Fed kept interest rates unchanged at its monetary policy meeting yesterday. But Chair Jerome Powell's comments that inflation had not retreated as much as the central bank had "hoped" worried investors.
Here's what to know:
- In its post-meeting statement, the Fed said that the impacts of the U.S.-Iran war on the economy were "uncertain."
- Powell said "nobody knows" how the conflict will affect the economy, but acknowledged that near-term measures of inflation expectations have risen as oil prices jumped.
- Despite oil's surge, the Fed's so-called dot plot showed that it still plans to lower rates once this year.
- Powell also said he would continue to lead the Fed in the event that the Senate does not confirm his successor by May. He has not decided whether he will remain on the Fed's Board of Governors after his exit as chair, he said.
- Stocks dropped as Powell spoke, dragging the Dow Jones Industrial Average to its lowest closing level of the year. Investors were already wary heading into the decision after a hotter-than-expected wholesale inflation report.
- Follow live market updates here.
2. Keeping up with the Joneses
Oil prices continued to rally today, with Brent futures briefly topping $119 this morning after Iranian strikes on key energy infrastructure in the Middle East.
In an effort to stabilize volatile oil markets, President Donald Trump yesterday issued a 60-day waiver of the Jones Act — a U.S. shipping law that requires goods transported between U.S. ports be done so by domestic vessels.
Meanwhile, Vice President JD Vance and Energy Secretary Chris Wright are slated to meet with the oil industry today. U.S. governors and congressmembers will also attend the meeting at the American Petroleum Institute, a lobbying group representing major U.S. oil and gas firms.
3. If memory serves
Micron soared past Wall Street's earnings and guidance expectations yesterday, but shares are down more than 5% this morning as investors take profit after the stock's 350% run.
The company, which has benefited from skyrocketing demand for Nvidia's graphics processing units, has rushed to increase its memory capacity. Micron said yesterday that its quarterly revenue nearly tripled from the same period a year ago and that it expects current-quarter revenue to grow by more than 200% on a year-over-year basis.
Don't miss Micron CEO Sanjay Mehrotra on CNBC's "Squawk on the Street" at 9 a.m. ET. Watch live on CNBC+ or the CNBC Pro stream.
4. Freight feud
Amazon wants to clear the air about its relationship with the U.S. Postal Service.
The e-commerce giant responded to reports that it planned to reduce the number of packages it sends through the Postal Service yesterday, saying in a blog post that the Post Office "walked away at the eleventh hour" of negotiations. Amazon said that it wanted to increase volumes under a new agreement, not reduce them.
The Postal Services' contract with Amazon — which has long been its largest customer — is set to expire at the end of September. Negotiations between the two parties come as Postmaster General David Steiner warned this week that the mail carrier could run out of cash within a year.
5. Falling short
Experts are warning that the U.S. unemployment system won't be prepared if the economy falls into a recession.
A bipartisan recommendation says that top payments should cover at least two-thirds of workers' prior average weekly wages. But an analysis shared exclusively with CNBC shows most states' maximum benefits miss that mark.
"The big takeaway here is that with stagnant maximum weekly amounts, [unemployment insurance] is not going to be able to act as a stabilizer in 2026, even as well as it did in 2008," said Michele Evermore, a senior fellow at the National Academy of Social Insurance.
The Daily Dividend
JPMorgan Chase is rounding up some of the biggest names in sports for an athlete-focused wealth management push. Here are some of the familiar faces taking part:
— CNBC's Jeff Cox, Darla Mercado, Sarah Min, Sean Conlon, Katie Tarasov, Jordan Novet, Kevin Breuninger, Spencer Kimball, Pippa Stevens, Annie Palmer, Annie Nova and Hugh Son contributed to this report. Josephine Rozzelle edited this edition.



