5 things to know before the market opens Tuesday

Happy Tuesday. If you’re a big Amazon user, your orders could soon arrive much faster. The e-commerce titan this morning announced plans to roll out 30-minute delivery in dozens of U.S. cities.

Stock futures are slipping before the bell after a positive session yesterday.

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

President Donald Trump didn’t mince words about Iran’s counteroffer yesterday, telling reporters that Tehran’s proposal to end the war was “garbage” and that the ceasefire was “on life support.” But Wall Street appeared to look past signs that the conflict could reignite, focusing instead on the artificial intelligence trade.

Here’s what to know:

Trump will head to China this week to meet with Chinese President Xi Jinping. CNBC’s Kevin Breuninger explains what’s at stake for the Iran war, Taiwan and trade at the Beijing summit.

Trump invited executives from a swath of major companies to join the delegation to China, a White House official told CNBC. The group includes Tesla‘s Elon Musk, Apple‘s Tim Cook, Meta‘s Dina Powell McCormick and Micron‘s Sanjay Mehrotra. Outside of tech, Citigroup‘s Jane Fraser, Boeing‘s Kelly Ortberg and Goldman Sachs‘ David Solomon are also on the list.

Cisco CEO Chuck Robbins was invited but cannot attend due to the company’s earnings, according to a spokesperson. Several companies with interests in China including Nvidia, Disney and General Motors also didn’t have representation on the White House’s list.

Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella took the stand yesterday in the ongoing trial between Musk and OpenAI CEO Sam Altman. Musk named Microsoft as a defendant in his 2024 lawsuit against OpenAI, accusing the company — a major backer of OpenAI — of aiding the AI startup’s alleged breach of its charitable trust.

In his hours-long testimony, Nadella said Musk never contacted him to express concern that Microsoft’s investments in OpenAI violated special terms or commitments. The Microsoft CEO also said that he never demanded OpenAI’s board reinstate Altman after the startup’s board fired the CEO in 2023.

Former OpenAI co-founder Ilya Sutskever took the witness stand after Nadella, followed by Bret Taylor, chairman of the board at OpenAI. Altman is expected to take the stand today.

General Motors is slashing hundreds of salaried information technology employees in a bid to cut costs. As CNBC’s Michael Wayland reports, the reductions began yesterday and are mainly focused on workers in Michigan and Texas.

GM said in a statement that it is “transforming” its IT arm to “better position the company for the future.” The Detroit-based automaker is still hiring IT workers despite the reductions.

GM didn’t specifically mention AI in its announcement, but the cuts come amid a wave of tech layoffs related to AI. Still, National Economic Council Director Kevin Hassett told CNBC yesterday that there is “no sign in the data that AI is costing anybody their job right now.”

Trump and congressional Republicans are proposing a suspension of the federal gas tax as fuel prices surge ahead of the midterm elections.

The president told reporters yesterday that he would “reduce” the tax of 18.4 cents per gallon — where it’s stood since 1993. Trump cannot unilaterally enact a gas tax holiday since Congress oversees taxation, but Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo., and Rep. Anna Paulina Luna, R-Fla., both said they’d introduce bills in their respective chambers to suspend the tax.

Meanwhile, Kalshi traders aren’t expecting relief at the pump. The odds of prices topping $5 per gallon exceeded 60% on the platform yesterday afternoon.

April home sales data from the National Association of Realtors disappointed analysts yesterday, as higher mortgage rates weighed on buyers. Here’s what else the NAR reported for April:

• Median price of sold homes: $417,700
• Average time on market: 32 days
• Year-over-year inventory growth: 1.4%

— CNBC’s Kevin Breuninger, Justina Lee, Sam Meredith, Spencer Kimball, Lee Ying Shan, Sean Conlon, Tobias Burns, Michael Khouw, Kai Nicol-Schwarz, Yun Li, Megan Cassella, Jordan Novet, Ashley Capoot, Garrett Downs, Ananya Chetia and Diana Olick contributed to this report.

Davis Giangiulio assisted in the production of this newsletter. Josephine Rozzelle edited this edition.

Disclosure: CNBC and Kalshi have a commercial relationship that includes a CNBC minority investment.