5 things to know before the stock market opens, June 18

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

It’s another record for the S&P 500. Gains from megacap tech stocks drove the broad index higher during Monday’s trading session, leading the index to close at a fresh high of 5,473.23 after adding 0.77%. The megacap gains also boosted the information technology sector by 1.2%, with Apple, Microsoft, Alphabet, Amazon and Meta Platforms all finishing the session higher. The Nasdaq Composite also rose 0.95% to finish at 17,857.02. This performance comes after both indexes posted their seventh weekly gain in eight weeks. The Dow Jones Industrial Average closed just behind the two indexes, snapping a four-day losing streak with an increase of 0.49% for the session. Follow live market updates.

Nvidia is moving on up. The index that the Technology Select Sector SPDR Fund (XLK) follows is set to rebalance, with the new calculations showing Nvidia’s weighting increasing to 21%. The stock’s weight as of June 14 was just 6%. As a whole, the new calculations will show Microsoft as the top stock in the index at around 21%, followed by Nvidia close behind, according to Matthew Bartolini, the head of SPDR Americas Research. Apple’s weighting post-rebalance, on the other hand, is estimated to be at 4.5%, which is much lower than the 22% its weight was at as of June 14.

Apple Pay Later is being discontinued. Apple, which launched its buy-now-pay-later program last year, said on Monday that it has stopped issuing loans through the program in the U.S. The loans allowed customers to pay off online purchases of up to $1,000 in four interest-free installments. This comes after the company announced last week that it’s going to allow installment loans in its Apple Pay checkout process later this year through third-party companies like Affirm as well as credit and debit cards from issuers, including Citigroup. Rest assured, users with open loans will still have access to Apple Pay Later features to pay their loans, the company added.

The future of GameStop appears to be unclear at the moment. The stock hit session lows during Monday’s session after the video game retailer’s annual meeting concluded without any updates about its strategies or future plans. The meeting lasted about 30 minutes, and no shareholders were able to ask their questions. Though the retailer’s CEO, Ryan Cohen, reiterated the company’s plans to focus on cost-cutting and boosting profits in his introductory remarks, he didn’t provide any specifics on future growth strategies. Shares of the company were trading as much as 17% lower in the session at $23.79.

No more artificial intelligence on the menu. McDonald’s is officially ending its AI drive-through technology experiment with IBM – a partnership that began in 2021 – in more than 100 restaurants. According to a memo sent to franchisees late last week and obtained by CNBC, the Automated Order Taker technology will be shut off no later than July 26. Two sources familiar with the AI technology told CNBC that it experienced challenges interpreting different accents and dialects. This affected order accuracy, they said. The move comes as restaurants like Del Taco and Panera, among others, have already begun testing ways to use AI to streamline business operations.

— CNBC’s Samantha Subin, Tanaya Macheel, Jesse Pound, Kif Leswing, Yun Li, Gabrielle Fonrouge and Kate Rogers contributed to this report.

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