5 things to know before the stock market opens on Friday, August 8

Here are 5 key things buyers want to know to begin the buying and selling day:

Economists and buyers have spent the final week questioning who would change Adriana Kugler on the Federal Reserve’s Board of Governors after her abrupt resignation. On Thursday, they bought their reply: President Donald Trump mentioned he would nominate Stephen Miran, the chair of the Council of Economic Advisors. Miran will serve out the the rest of Kugler’s time period, which ends Jan. 31, 2026, Trump mentioned, whereas the president searches for a everlasting alternative. Miran’s appointment to the rate-setting Federal Open Market Committee — which nonetheless wants Senate affirmation — would put a Trump loyalist on the board at a time when the White House is pressuring the central financial institution to decrease rates of interest.

Some of the greatest names in tech have showered the White House with particular offers this week. OpenAI kicked things off Tuesday when it introduced it will give the federal authorities entry to the enterprise model of ChatGPT for just $1 by the subsequent 12 months. A day later, Apple CEO Tim Cook offered Trump with an engraved reward as he introduced that the firm would expand its domestic investments. (But as CNBC’s Kif Leswing reviews, Cook has up to now prevented making the ultimate concession: a totally made-in-America iPhone.) Most not too long ago, a authorities company on Thursday mentioned Amazon‘s cloud enterprise agreed to give the authorities as much as $1 billion in reductions by 2028. Speaking of OpenAI, CEO Sam Altman will be part of CNBC’s “Squawk Box” in the 8 a.m. ET hour to discuss the launch of the firm’s GPT-5 mannequin. Watch CNBC live here.

While these tech corporations raced to curry favor with the Trump administration, Intel‘s CEO bought a public shaming. Trump mentioned in a Truth Social publish Thursday morning that CEO Lip-Bu Tan is “highly CONFLICTED” and “must resign, immediately.” The president gave no rationalization in his publish, however Trump’s feedback comply with a report that Sen. Tom Cotton (*5*) to Intel’s board chair questioning Tan’s ties to Chinese corporations. Trump’s reprimand comes simply months into Tan’s tenure at Intel’s helm. The former CEO of Cadence Design Systems was introduced in as the firm appears to be like to reverse its pattern of declining gross sales. Shares slid greater than 3% in Thursday’s session, additional sinking the stock amid an already-tough quarter. Follow live markets updates here.

Rubber is assembly the highway for Crocs, the maker of these clog-themed sneakers. Shares misplaced greater than 29% of their worth in Thursday’s session, marking their worst day in 14 years. Driving the sell-off was the shoemaker’s poor outlook: The Colorado-based firm caught Wall Street off guard by sharing expectations for a year-over-year income decline of 9% to 11% in the present quarter. Investment agency Baird referred to as the steerage “disappointing,” whereas Needham mentioned the firm is going through a “dramatic deterioration of trends” in the again half of 2025.

Is work at home so last-year? New information anticipated subsequent week from CRBE exhibits that is increasingly the case, CNBC’s Diana Olick reviews. Companies are monitoring and implementing workplace attendance at the highest degree since 2020, in accordance to the forthcoming survey. On common, companies surveyed mentioned they needed workers in workplace 3.2 days per week. If this kind of reporting piques your curiosity, be certain to subscribe to Olick’s weekly Property Play e-newsletter.

— CNBC’s Jeff Cox, Ashley Capoot, Kif Leswing, Annie Palmer, Fred Imbert and Diana Olick contributed to this report.