• Stock futures were higher on the first trading day of 2025.
• The U.S. housing market has strong supply — but that's not necessarily a good sign.
• An early morning attack on Wednesday in the French Quarter of New Orleans killed at least 15 people.

Here are five key things investors need to know to start the trading day:

1. New beginnings

Stock futures were higher on the first trading day of 2025. Dow Jones Industrial Average futures were 0.6% higher, while S&P 500 futures were up 0.8% and Nasdaq-100 futures gained 1%. Still, it's not looking good for the traditional "Santa Claus rally" — in which stocks usually advance in the five final days of a calendar year and the first two trading days of January — since the averages suffered into the 2024 year-end. Follow live market updates.

2. Closure

It was a tough year for restaurants, as inflation-fatigued Americans stayed home and visits to U.S. eateries broadly fell. Twenty-six restaurant companies filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in 2024, and scores of chains closed down locations. The likes of Wendy's, Denny's and Applebee's were among the hardest hit. Here's who else saw their footprint shrink last year.

3. Holdovers

The U.S. housing market has strong supply — but that's not necessarily a good sign. Active listings in November were up 12% year over year, largely because houses are staying on the market longer, according to data from Redfin. More than half of the homes listed in November had been up for sale for at least 60 days, the highest share for any November in five years. As one Redfin agent put it: "A lot of listings on the market are either stale or uninhabitable. There's a lot of inventory, but it doesn't feel like enough."

4. New challenge

Apple is facing stiff competition from Huawei in China. Shipments of Apple smartphones fell 6% year over year in China during the third quarter, according to Canalys, while shipments of Huawei devices jumped 24% year over year. In response, Apple is offering discounts on some products in the all-important market around the upcoming Chinese New Year — as much as 500 Chinese yuan ($68.50) off its top-line phones.

5. New Year's Day violence

An early morning attack on Wednesday in the French Quarter of New Orleans killed at least 15 people and injured 30 more. The FBI has identified a 42-year-old Texas man who crashed a pickup truck into a New Year's celebration and then opened fire on police. The suspect was killed at the scene. The FBI has identified the act as possible terrorism and is examining motive, including any potential connection to a separate incident in Las Vegas on Wednesday, where a Tesla Cybertruck exploded outside a Trump hotel.

– CNBC's Christina Cheddar-Berk, Amelia Lucas, Diana Olick and Arjun Kharpal, and Reuters contributed to this report.