• Stock futures were higher Wednesday after a four-day losing streak for the S&P 500.
• Nvidia is on deck to report fourth-quarter earnings after the bell Wednesday.
• General Motors is raising its dividend and buying back shares.

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

1. Rebound restored

Stock futures were higher Wednesday after a four-day losing streak for the S&P 500. Futures tied to the Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 0.3% in premarket trading, Nasdaq-100 futures rose 0.7% and S&P 500 futures advanced 0.5%. For the first two trading sessions of the week, only the Dow is in positive territory. Nvidia could help lift averages, though. The stock was up 2.5% premarket after shedding almost 3% on Tuesday. Follow live market updates.

2. In the Blackwell

Nvidia is on deck to report fourth-quarter earnings after the bell Wednesday, and it's expected to put up more monster results. Analysts polled by FactSet anticipate $38 billion in sales for the company's final fiscal quarter of 2024 — a 72% year-over-year increase. It would be the second straight year that Nvidia has doubled its sales. The report comes as Nvidia stock has slowed down from its breakneck pace and a new AI model developed in China, DeepSeek R1, is testing assumptions that more Nvidia chips will be needed to build smarter AI.

3. Waning confidence

Consumer confidence took its largest monthly hit since August 2021, according to the latest readout from the Conference Board. The Consumer Confidence Index fell 7 points to 98.3 for February, the lowest reading since June. The culprit seems to be concerns around inflation and the labor market, with consumers "pessimistic about future business conditions and less optimistic about future income," said Stephanie Guichard, the board's senior economist for global indicators.

4. Coin drop

Bitcoin fell through $90,000 on Tuesday and is now almost 20% off its all-time high reached in January. The cryptocurrency dipped as low as $85,899.99, its lowest level since November, dented by sell pressure and a lack of noticeable catalyst for the market. "Equities have faced a few difficult sessions over the last week, with top-performing stocks down many times the index, as markets grapple with increased uncertainty under the new administration," said Steven Lubka, head of private clients and family offices at Swan Bitcoin. "This pressure has spilled over into bitcoin and crypto markets."

5. Driving shareholder returns

General Motors is raising its dividend and buying back shares. The automaker announced it's boosting its quarterly payout to 15 cents per share (the same as the dividend at its rival, Ford.) GM also announced a new $6 billion stock repurchase plan, $2 billion of which is expected to be completed in the second quarter. "The GM team's execution continues to be strong across all three pillars of our capital allocation strategy, which are to reinvest in the business for profitable growth, maintain a strong investment grade balance sheet, and return capital to our shareholders," GM CEO Mary Barra said in a release.

– CNBC's Hakyung Kim, Brian Evans, Kif Leswing, Jeff Cox, Tanaya Macheel and Michael Wayland contributed to this report.