5 things to know before the stock market opens Thursday, December 28

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

The S&P 500 is still chasing its all-time high, having gained 0.14% on Wednesday. That index is now 0.5% away from its closing record of 4,796.56. Meanwhile, the Dow Jones Industrial Average notched its own record close of 37,656.52 after advancing 0.3% during the session. The Nasdaq Composite added 0.16% to end the day at 15,099.18. Sam Stovall, chief investment strategist at CFRA, said the market is eager to score a new all-time high for the S&P 500 before year-end, “but at the same time, once the market does set a new all-time high, it’s probably vulnerable to a post-high pause.” Follow live market updates.

The New York Times is suing Microsoft and ChatGPT-creator OpenAI claiming the publisher’s intellectual property was improperly used to train large language models. The Times is seeking to hold Microsoft and OpenAI accountable for what it says is “billions of dollars in statutory and actual damages” for the “unlawful copying and use of The Times’s uniquely valuable works.” It’s the latest in a string of complaints against the use of publicly available information to train AI tools as the segment has boomed in recent months.

A U.S. appeals court dealt Apple a win Wednesday, temporarily halting an import ban on the tech giant’s popular smartwatches. The decision means Apple will be able to sell the devices despite a patent dispute with medical tech company Masimo, which claims the watches infringe on protected blood oxygen level sensing technology. The decision pauses the ban through Jan. 10. Apple said in a statement the impacted Watch models would be available to…