• Disney and Warner Bros. Discovery are going back to bundling.
• Google employees question executives over a "decline in morale" after blowout earnings.
• Applebee's and IHOP want to lure low-income customers away from fast-food chains.

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

1. Winners, losers and flatliners

The Dow is on its longest winning streak of the year so far after rising for the sixth trading day in a row Wednesday. The Dow Jones Industrial Average added 0.44%, or 172.13 points, as investors shook off a slate of falling tech stocks, including Uber and Shopify, which had both reported earnings. The other major indexes didn't fare so well, as the broad S&P 500 stayed nearly flat, inching lower by 0.03 point, and the tech-heavy Nasdaq pulled back by 0.18%. Looking ahead, weekly jobless claims are due Thursday morning. Follow live market updates.

2. Bundles of joy

Remember the traditional cable TV bundle? Disney and Warner Bros. Discovery do. The entertainment giants said late Wednesday that they're planning to offer their streaming services — Disney+, Hulu and Max — in a bundle that mirrors the old cable package. There will be ad-supported and commercial-free tiers in the offering. The companies have not yet disclosed prices, though it will be cheaper than buying the services separately, according to a person familiar with the matter. The news came shortly before Warner Bros. Discovery reported first-quarter results on Thursday that missed analyst expectations.

3. Trouble in paradise

Google had a blowout earnings report last month that sparked the biggest rally in Alphabet shares since 2015 and pushed the company's market cap past $2 trillion. But internally, employees have been grilling executives, questioning why that performance isn't translating into higher pay, CNBC's Jennifer Elias reported. Google workers also want to know when the company will end its cost-cutting measures, including layoffs, and what its priorities are, including its plans for investments in artificial intelligence. One highly ranked comment during an all-hands meeting said there's been a "decline in morale" at the tech giant.

4. Whole lotta promotions

Dine Brands, which owns restaurant chains Applebee's and IHOP, thinks it can lure low-income customers away from fast-food chains with deals. "The Whole Lotta Burger for $9.99 — if you can have our burger for $10, which is great quality, abundant and eat in our restaurant, in our experience, why would you eat a $10 burger out of a paper bag in your car?" Dine Brands CEO John Peyton told CNBC. Still, it won't be an easy road. Dine recently reported disappointing first-quarter earnings and revenue. It reiterated its full-year forecast, but Peyton noted that low-income consumers visited less frequently and spent more carefully when they did eat out in the first quarter.

5. Neuralink problem

Elon Musk's startup Neuralink has a problem. The neurotech company said Wednesday that part of its marque brain implant had malfunctioned after it put the system in a human patient for the first time. The brain-computer interface could eventually help patients with paralysis control external technology using only their minds. It records neural signals using 1,024 electrodes across 64 "threads," but it said an unspecified number of those threads have detached in its trial patient. That means that while he's still using the interface, there are fewer effective electrodes, which inhibits the company's ability to measure the speed and accuracy of its system, which is called the Link.

— CNBC's Pia Singh, Lillian Rizzo, Alex Sherman, Jennifer Elias, Amelia Lucas and Ashley Capoot contributed to this report.

Disclosure: Comcast, which owns CNBC parent NBCUniversal, is a co-owner of Hulu.

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