5 things to know before the stock market opens Thursday

Here are the most important news, trends and analysis that investors need to start their trading day:

U.S. stock futures pointed to a higher open Thursday, as traders tried to regain their footing following a choppy trading session. Futures tied to the Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 97 points, or 0.3%. S&P 500 and Nasdaq 100 futures climbed 0.4% and 0.6%, respectively. Thursday’s moves come a day after the major averages started the month with slight declines, as worries over the health of the economy and rising interest rates dented market sentiment.

Oil prices were under pressure after the Financial Times reported, citing sources, that Saudi Arabia is prepared to raise crude production if there’s a significant drop in Russia’s output due to sanctions. West Texas Intermediate, the U.S. oil benchmark, dropped 2.4% to $112.45 per barrel. International Brent crude also slipped 2.4% to $113.45. According to the report, Saudi Arabia is aware of the risks of a supply shortage and that it is “not in their interests to lose control of oil prices.”

The FT report comes ahead of a key OPEC+ meeting Thursday. The cartel, along with Russia and other oil-producing countries, is expected to stick with the current production agreement.

Sheryl Sandberg, chief operating officer at Facebook parent Meta, announced she is stepping down from her post, with Chief Growth Officer Javier Olivan set to succeed her in the fall. “Over the next few months, Mark and I will transition my direct reports,” Sandberg said in a lengthy Facebook post discussing stepping down. CEO Mark Zuckerberg also said the company is planning an internal reorganization along with the change.

Sandberg joined Facebook in 2008 as Zuckerberg’s No. 2, helping turn the social media company into an advertising juggernaut.

In two separate emails, Tesla’s Elon Musk told the company’s workers to work from the office at least 40 hours a week, or leave the company. “If you don’t show up, we will assume you have resigned,” Musk said in one of the emails obtained by CNBC and first reported by Electrek. “Anyone who wishes to do remote work must be in the office for a minimum (and I mean *minimum*) of 40 hours per week or depart Tesla,” Musk said in the first email, according to Electrek. “This is less than we ask of factory workers.”

Musk’s emails come as other Big Tech companies have yet to force all workers to return to their offices. Instead, employers such as Amazon, Apple and Alphabet are allowing some remote work, depending on an employee’s position and location.

Roughly 560,000 students who attended schools operated by Corinthian Colleges, which was formerly a large for-profit education company, will have their student loans debt canceled, the Department of Education announced Wednesday. That will come out to approximately $5.8 billion in canceled debt. These schools have been accused of predatory and unlawful practices, and the company filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in 2015.

 — CNBC’s Weizhen Tan, Annie Nova and Jessica Bursztynsky contributed to this report.

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