Grapevine

5 things to know before the stock market opens Thursday

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

Stock futures slipped Thursday as investors await the latest CPI data, out at 830 a.m. ET. Futures tied to the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell or 0.1%, while S&P 500 futures and Nasdaq 100 futures fell roughly 0.2%. each. Economists polled by Dow Jones anticipate the consumer price index for September to show a 0.1% increase on a monthly basis and a 2.3% jump over the prior 12 months. That result will inform the Federal Reserve's next policy steps when the central bank meets in November. Follow live market updates.

2. Cutting it close

Federal Reserve officials were split on their half-point rate cut, a meeting summary of central bank officials revealed. The decision to cut by a half percentage point came down to balancing confidence on inflation with worries over the labor market, but multiple officials favored a smaller move. In the end, only committee member Governor Michelle Bowman voted against the half-point cut, the first time a governor had dissented on an interest rate vote since 2005. A higher-than-expected jobs report in September cemented confidence that while the Fed likely is in the early days of an easing cycle, future cuts likely would not be so aggressive.