5 things to know before the stock market opens Wednesday

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

The S&P 500 and the Nasdaq were on a five-day losing streak heading into Wednesday, while the Dow managed to squeak out a win Tuesday. With earnings season getting into gear – PepsiCo reported Wednesday morning (see below) – investors will be digesting what companies say along with fresh economic data points. The government released September’s producer price index, a measure of inflation (it was higher than expected), while the Federal Reserve will publish the minutes from its September meeting. Markets are also reckoning with debt-market volatility in the United Kingdom as the Bank of England prepares to end its emergency intervention Friday. Read live market updates here.

President Joe Biden thinks Wall Street’s fears of a recession are overblown. “Every six months they say this. Every six months, they look down the next six months and say what’s going to happen,” Biden told CNN in an interview that aired Tuesday night. “It hadn’t happened yet.” Biden’s remarks followed JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon’s warning that the U.S. economy will fall into a recession in six to nine months. Recession talk on Wall Street is growing louder as the Federal Reserve aggressively raises rates to fight decades-high inflation. Some critics say the Fed is risking a robust economy by moving too fast after not doing enough at first to tame surging prices. Biden, for his part, acknowledged a recession could well happen. “If it is, it’ll be a very slight recession,” Biden told CNN. “That is, we’ll move down slightly.”

Russia said it arrested five Russians and three citizens of Ukraine and Armenia in the bombing of the bridge that connects its mainland with the Crimean peninsula. The span was a major supply line for Russian forces, which had illegally annexed Crimea eight years ago. Russian President Vladimir Putin called the bombing a terrorist act and unleashed a wave of missile strikes across Ukraine in retaliation. Ukraine hasn’t claimed credit for the bridge bombing, nor has it commented on Russia’s arrests in the matter. Ukraine’s president, Volodomyr Zelenskyy, said the missiles targeted civilians and crippled energy, water and communications infrastructure. Ukraine’s military, however, has made significant progress on the battlefield against Russia’s forces, reclaiming land that had been seized during the invasion’s earlier days. Read live war updates here.

PepsiCo, the maker of Pepsi soda and Frito-Lay chips, raised its revenue outlook for the year as the company continues to perform well even as costs rise. The food and beverage giant beat Wall Street’s estimates for sales and profit in the third quarter. PepsiCo has blunted the impact of cost increases through a strategy that includes using smaller sizes for various products, amounting to what’s known as “shrinkflation.” The company said Wednesday that its Frito-Lay North America and Quaker Food North America divisions posted double-digit revenue increases for the quarter, despite declines in the volume of products sold.

Shares of Uber, Lyft and other companies that depend on the labor of independent contractors took a hit Tuesday following a new proposal from the U.S. Labor Department. If it goes into effect, the rule would reclassify these workers as employees rather than so-called gig workers. Critics of Uber, DoorDash and similar companies say their models deny workers health benefits and overtime pay, while keeping business costs down. Uber and Lyft both downplayed the proposed regulatory change.

– CNBC’s Tanaya Macheel, Emma Kinery, Holly Ellyatt, Jack Stebbins and Lauren Feiner contributed to this report.

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