5 things to know before the stock market opens Wednesday

Here are five important things investors need to know to start the trading day:

Consumers have a more pessimistic view of the economy. The Conference Board’s consumer confidence saw its biggest one-month drop in more than three years, falling to 98.7. It is down from 105.6 in August and a bigger drop than the 104 economists surveyed by Dow Jones expected. The last time the confidence index fell significantly was in August 2021, as inflation had just started to rise. Respondents were most concerned about jobs and inflation, with fewer saying more jobs.

Visa he was hit with a different type of charge on Tuesday. The United States Department of Justice indicted the world’s largest payment network and accused it of creating an illegal network monopoly that affects the price of “almost everything” each.” “We allege that Visa has legally amassed the power to charge fees that far exceed what it could charge in a competitive market,” Attorney General Merrick Garland said in a DOJ release. The DOJ also accused the company of entering into “severance” agreements with partners and destroying the innovation of start-up firms. Visa stock closed down 5% for the day.

Senators grilled Novo Nordisk CEO Lars Fruergaard Jørgensen in a hearing on Tuesday over the high cost of the company’s blockbuster vaccines. Jørgensen did not specifically promise to reduce the prices of weight loss drug Wegovy and diabetes treatment Ozempic, but said he wants to work with Congress on policy solutions that will deal with ” structural issues” that drive prescription drug costs. He also said he will work with pharmacy benefit managers, middlemen who negotiate drug discounts and manufacturers on behalf of insurers. Sen. Bernie Sanders, a Vermont independent who chaired the Senate panel that questioned Jørgensen, argued that Novo Nordisk was charging Americans much higher prices for Wegovy and Ozempic than patients in other countries. the rest.

A New York federal judge sentenced Caroline Ellison – the star witness in the prosecution of her ex-boyfriend and FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried – to two years in prison, saying she disagreed with “going outside of country.” – get out of jail free card.” Judge Lewis Kaplan also ordered him to forfeit $11 billion for his role in the massive fraud and conspiracy that led to the collapse of the cryptocurrency exchange. The federal Probation Department had recommended no prison time for Ellison, who reached a plea deal with prosecutors in December 2022, a month after FTX cash in. Kaplan praised Ellison for his cooperation in the case, but said his criminal conviction was necessary to deter other bad actors.

– CNBC’s Brian Evans, Jeff Cox, Hugh Son, Annika Kim Constantino, MacKenzie Sigalos, Dan Mangan and Dawn Giel contributed to this report.