5 things to know before the stock market opens Tuesday, February 27

Here are the most important news items that investors need to start their trading day:

The S&P 500 and Dow Jones Industrial Average slipped on Monday, pulling back from the record highs they each notched on Friday. The S&P closed 0.38% lower, while the Dow fell 0.16%. The Nasdaq Composite also lost ground on Monday, declining 0.13%. It’s an early data point for investors as they watch to see if the AI- and Nvidia-fueled rally of last week can hold. Follow for live market updates.

Retail earnings keep rolling on, with a pair of new reports out Tuesday. Home improvement giant Lowe’s and embattled department store retailer Macy’s each reported fourth-quarter results before market open. Lowe’s topped analysts’ estimates, but saw customers tackle fewer home projects during the quarter. Macy’s reported another quarter of falling sales while unveiling a strategy for growth that includes closing 150 stores. Later this week, investors will get quarterly reports from TJX, Best Buy and Birkenstock.

The Federal Trade Commission on Monday sued to block a proposed merger between grocery chains Kroger and Albertsons. It’s a largely anticipated challenge from an administration that’s drawn a hard line against corporate combinations. The merger, first announced in October 2022 for $24.6 billion, would combine the grocers’ roughly 5,000 stores across more than two dozen supermarket banners. The FTC, alongside nine state attorneys general, argues that scale would reduce competition and result in higher prices for shoppers. The grocery chains say the merger would allow them to better compete against the likes of Walmart, Amazon and Costco and ultimately improve pricing for customers.

Elsewhere in M&A, JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon is all for competition, saying he’s not worried about a possible tie-up between Capitol One and Discovery. That merger, announced earlier this month at a value of $35.3 billion, would create the nation’s largest credit card lender — a title currently held by JPMorgan. “My view is, let them compete,” Dimon told CNBC’s Leslie Picker. “Let them try, and if we think it’s unfair, we’ll complain about that.” Dimon also touched on the macroeconomy, noting he sees risks to a soft landing, and on artificial intelligence, saying, “This is not hype. This is real.”

Bitcoin is back on a tear. The world’s largest cryptocurrency by market cap surpassed $56,000 overnight, now up 10% in two days, and notched a two-year high. The rally boosted the broader crypto market as well, with Ethereum reaching a recent high of above $3,200. It comes a little more than a month after the SEC approved a long-awaited bitcoin ETF — and roughly two months before a bitcoin “halving event,” in which the payment for mining bitcoin gets cut in half, slowing the rate at which tokens are created.

— CNBC’s Hakyung Kim, Tanaya Macheel, Melissa Repko, Hugh Son, Jeff Cox, Jesse Pound and Dylan Butts contributed to this report.

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