5 things you need to know before the stock market opens on Wednesday, January 18

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

The Nasdaq squeezed out another win on Tuesday, while the S&P 500 declined slightly. But it was a particularly rough day for the Dow as a component Goldman Sachs fell more than 6% after posting its worst earnings miss in a decade. The major banks have reported mixed results, making it difficult to determine what to expect as the earnings season progresses. “This is really a critical earnings season to find out if companies can weather the storm and how long they can weather it,” SoFi’s Liz Young said on CNBC’s “Closing Bell: Overtime.” On Wednesday, investors will be chewing on more data as the producer price index, a measure of wholesale inflation, comes out. Read live market updates here.

It has become a common theme for airlines: airfares are high, but travelers continue to pay. United Airlines on Tuesday it reported quarterly profit and revenue that easily beat Wall Street expectations, while outperforming the fourth quarter in 2019 just before the pandemic rocked travel. Carriers are still struggling with labor shortages and reduced aircraft supply, not to mention higher fuel and material costs, but people are eager to fly and that has outdone everything. United sees the trend continuing, with a stronger-than-expected outlook for early 2023.

Cash-strapped Twitter is practically looking for couch cushion change as it reportedly struggles to pay rent. Amid reports of dramatically lower ad revenue, the social media company is resorting to auctioning off items from its San Francisco headquarters. The company sells kegerators, espresso machines, TVs, oversized neon versions of the logo, pizza ovens, and more. CEO Elon Musk, who took over Twitter last fall, faced an exodus of advertisers and employees as he allowed banned users back onto the platform while also seeking dramatic cost savings.

Weekly mortgage demand skyrocketed after prices fell slightly, demonstrating how sensitive the market is to price movements. Aggregate demand rose 28% last week, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association, as interest rates on the popular 30-year fixed-rate mortgage fell from 6.42% to 6.23%. Admittedly, a year ago the rate was 3.64% and the demand for purchases and refinancing was much higher. There are also no new offerings coming to market, so affordability is likely to continue to be an issue for homebuyers for the foreseeable future.

More than a dozen people were killed in a helicopter crash near Kiev on Wednesday, including Ukrainian Interior Minister Denys Monastyrskyi along with other top officials from his department. Several people on the ground and in the helicopter died in the town of Brovary. Three children are said to be among the dead. The news comes as the war between Ukraine and Russia continues and Russian President Vladimir Putin appears poised to announce a new offensive. Read live war updates here.