5 things to know before the stock market opens on Thursday, March 14th

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

The S&P 500 and Nasdaq Composite took a step back from recent gains on Wednesday, falling 0.19% and 0.54%, respectively. These losses followed a decline in the high-tech sector. Nvidia, which has been driving the market’s recent gains, fell 1.1% on Monday. Meanwhile, the Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 0.1%. Looking ahead, investors will focus on Thursday morning’s measure of wholesale inflation, as the February producer price index will be released before the bell. Follow live market updates here.

The House of Representatives on Wednesday passed a bill requiring TikTok’s Chinese owner ByteDance to sell the social media video site within six months or effectively face a ban in the United States. The vote was overwhelmingly in favor of the bill, passing with a vote of 352 votes to 65. The bill, which would qualify as national security because TikTok is controlled by a foreign enemy, is currently before the Senate, but its fate is less uncertain. President Joe Biden, who created an official TikTok account in February as part of his campaign, said he would pass the bill once it reaches his desk.

Under Armor announced Wednesday that founder Kevin Plank will return as CEO. Current CEO Stephanie Linnertz will step down after just over a year in the role. She previously spent nearly 30 years at Marriott International, most recently serving as president before taking on a role at Under Armor. Plank, who founded the sportswear brand in 1996, stepped down as CEO four years ago but remained chairman. Mohamed El-Erian, chief economic advisor to Pimco’s parent company Allianz, will assume the role of non-executive chairman of Plank’s board.

Palantir CEO Alex Karp told CNBC’s Sarah Eisen that his pro-Israel views will lead to some employees leaving the company and that he expects more losses. He said he is doing so. “If you take a position that doesn’t cost you the loss of an employee, it’s not a position,” Karp said in an interview on CNBC’s “Money Movers.” The company is known for its government contract work in the defense and intelligence fields, and has provided technology to support the Ukrainian and Israeli militaries in their respective wars. In the interview, he criticized short sellers, investors who bet that a company’s stock price would fall. “Nothing makes a man happier than taking a line of cocaine off a short seller trying to short a truly great American company,” Karp said.

Consumer demand for electric vehicles has not emerged as quickly as management expected. As a result, automakers from Ford Motor Co. and General Motors Co. to Mercedes-Benz, Volkswagen, Jaguar Land Rover and Aston Martin have scaled back or postponed their EV plans. Vehicle sales are expected to increase further in the coming years. But even Tesla, the U.S. leader in electric vehicles, is bracing for “potentially significant declines” in growth, CEO Elon Musk said. Meanwhile, some automakers are moving away from fully electric vehicle lineups to more blended vehicle offerings, including gas-powered options and hybrids that are more cost-effective for consumers and help companies meet emissions guidelines. I’m making the switch.

—CNBC’s Brian Evans, Lisa Kailai Han, Jonathan Vanian, Gabriel Fonrouge, Sara Salinas, Alex Koller, Todd Hazelton, Sara Eisen and Michael Weiland contributed to this report .

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