5 things to know before the stock market opens Thursday

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

The Dow’s cruise higher has hit a speed bump. Stock futures slid on Thursday, a day after the three major U.S. indexes dropped in the wake of Fitch’s move to cut its U.S. credit rating. The tech-driven Nasdaq fell more than 2% in its worst day since February. A rush of earnings, including from some of the largest companies in the world by market cap, will help to determine how equities fare the rest of the week. Follow live market updates here.