5 things to know before the stock market opens Wednesday, September 21

Here is the key news investors need to start their trading day:

Investors are awaiting the Federal Reserve’s interest rate announcement on Wednesday. A three-quarter-point hike in interest rates is baked in, but markets are looking for more clarity on what the Fed will do for the rest of the year and beyond as high inflation persists. The Fed will announce its decision at 2 p.m. ET, while Chair Jerome Powell will discuss the central bank’s rationale at 2:30 p.m. You can stream them live here on CNBC.com. US stocks, meanwhile, appeared to be heading for a flat to slightly higher open on Wednesday. All three major indices fell on Tuesday, while 2-year and 10-year government bond yields rose to their highest levels in more than 10 years.

Russian President Vladimir Putin said he will call down some of the country’s reserves as his invasion of Ukraine suffers setback after setback. Putin’s announcement of a mobilization was vague on other issues, but it effectively alerts Russia’s citizens and businesses that they could contribute more to the Kremlin’s operations in its former Soviet neighbor. Ukraine, backed by Western funds and weapons, has reclaimed territory in an aggressive counteroffensive that has routed Russian forces in the south and east of the country. Putin’s speech, in which he claimed the West is trying to destroy Russia and appears to be threatening nuclear retaliation, is a major escalation that sends a harsh message to world leaders gathering in New York this week for the General Assembly of the United Nations meet.

Another week, another crazy turn in the housing market. Demand for mortgage loans actually increased even as interest rates topped 6%, effectively doubling from earlier this year. Refinance requests, which tend to be more sensitive to large interest rate swings than purchase requests, rose 10% on the week, although they were still more than 80% lower than a year ago. While the data may come as a bit of a surprise, don’t rely on it to indicate a larger trend. Homes are still expensive, even though sellers are bargaining more and some builders are fetching lower prices.

TikTok continues to disrupt the former disruptors. YouTube, owned by Google from Alphabet, announced on Tuesday that it will share revenue with the platform’s shorts video creators as it competes with TikTok for audiences for viral short videos. In the second quarter, YouTube posted its slowest revenue growth since 2019, when Alphabet began disaggregating the unit’s revenue. The move comes as legacy social media platforms, including Meta’s Facebook, grapple with a loss of users to TikTok, which is owned by Chinese company ByteDance.

Beyond Meat operations manager Doug Ramsey is said to have bitten a man on the nose and punched through the rear windshield of a Subaru when there was a traffic accident in an Arkansas parking garage on Saturday. Now he’s suspended from his job at the vegan food maker while awaiting his court date in October. Ramsey, who joined Beyond Meat months ago after three decades at Tyson Foods, was also accused of threatening to kill the man. The alleged altercation, arrest and suspension comes at a difficult time for Beyond Meat. As the company’s revenue has declined, so has its share price — which is down about 75% so far this year. Three years ago, the company was valued at $13.4 billion. Now its market cap is just over $1 billion.

— CNBC’s Patti Domm, Carmen Reinicke, Holly Ellyatt, Jennifer Elias, Diana Olick, and Amelia Lucas contributed to this report.

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