• It's the first trading day of 2024, and Wall Street still has a few days left to pull off a "Santa Claus rally."
• The PGA Tour and LIV Golf are "working to extend" negotiations toward their proposed merger.
• Chinese electric vehicle maker maker BYD is poised to surpass U.S. leader Tesla in production for the second year running.

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

1. New beginnings

Wipe the slate clean; it's the first trading day of 2024. Wall Street still has a few days left to pull off a so-called "Santa Claus rally" — the typically fruitful period spanning the last five trading days of one year and the first two of the next — but stocks pretty much coasted into the end of 2023. For the final, shortened trading week of the year, the Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 0.8%, the Nasdaq Composite effectively held the flatline, and the S&P 500 limped into the new year, up 0.3% on the week and short of its all-time closing high. Still, it wasn't all a snooze: The Dow notched a new record and ended the year up 13.7%; the Nasdaq rose a blistering 43.4% in a year marked by AI enthusiasm; and the S&P 500 posted nine consecutive weeks of gains for its best win streak since 2004, ending 2023 up 24.2%. Follow live market updates.

2. Oil lang syne

U.S. crude oil posted its first down year since 2020, shedding 10% in 2023 as worries mounted about the potential for oversupply. The West Texas Intermediate was down 10.73% on the year, and Brent lost 10.32%. Despite ongoing geopolitical risk due to war in the Middle East, the U.S., Brazil and Guyana are all producing crude at record pace, amounting to historic production outside OPEC. The oil-producing bloc and its allies have vowed to cut production by 2.2 million barrels per day in the first quarter of 2024, but questions of demand and supply balance remain.

3. Mulligan

The PGA Tour and Saudi-backed LIV Golf are "working to extend" negotiations toward their proposed merger as a Dec. 31, 2023, deadline has lapsed, according to a memo to players from PGA Tour Commissioner Jay Monahan. It's the latest disruption in what's been a challenged merger process between the competing golf leagues, but it may be for good reason. Monahan said the goal for 2024 is to bring Strategic Sports Group, an investor group led by Fenway Sports Group, into the fold alongside Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund and DP World Tour. Monahan said the parties have made "meaningful progress" on that front.

4. No. 1

Chinese electric vehicle maker maker BYD is poised to surpass U.S. leader Tesla in production for the second year running, reporting more than 3 million new vehicles made in 2023. Tesla has yet to release its fourth-quarter production and delivery numbers — expected in the coming days — but produced 1.35 million cars during the first three quarters of the year. BYD sells both battery-powered and hybrid models, which could help maintain demand while global automakers face shaky EV interest and increasingly lean on hybrids. Tesla sells only fully electric vehicles.

5. New Year's Day quake

A 7.6-magnitude earthquake hit Japan on New Year's Day, killing at least 48 people and leaving tens of thousands of homes without power. People in coastal areas were forced to evacuate to higher ground as tsunami waves hit the country's western seaboard. The 48 deaths were all identified in the Ishikawa prefecture in central Japan, where the earthquake struck. The disaster is already Japan's deadliest earthquake since a 7.3-magnitude quake in 2016 killed more than 220 people.

– CNBC's Samantha Subin, Jesse Pound, Spencer Kimball, Jessica Golden and Evelyn Cheng and Reuters contributed to this report.

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