• Tech stocks are leading the way this week.
• Netflix added an impressive 13.1 million subscribers during the fourth quarter.
• Former president Donald Trump defeated former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley in the New Hampshire Republican primary.

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

1. Tech leads

Tech stocks are leading the way this week. Futures tied to the tech-heavy Nasdaq 100 were up Wednesday morning, boosted by a 9% premarket rise in Netflix stock. The Nasdaq Composite posted the largest gains of the major indexes during the regular trading session Tuesday and is up about 0.75% so far on the week. The S&P 500, which is trading at record highs, is up about 0.5% so far this week, while the Dow Jones Industrial Average is up just 0.1%. Follow live market updates.

2. Watch this

Netflix added an impressive 13.1 million subscribers during the fourth quarter, outpacing both Wall Street expectations and previous membership gains. The streaming giant now counts 260.8 million paid subscribers, it said Tuesday alongside quarterly results that showed revenue and profit up big year over year. Netflix has been pushing sign-ups through a password sharing crackdown and its cheaper, ad-supported tier. On Tuesday, it laid the groundwork for more price hikes and made a big jump into live entertainment (not live sports, according to co-CEO Ted Sarandos) with a deal to stream WWE's Raw for 10 years.

3. 'Boots on the ground'

The Federal Aviation Administration plans to keep "boots on the ground" at Boeing until it can be sure the aircraft manufacturer's quality control system is working. "We've got a lot of inspectors on the ground, visually inspecting the aircraft as it comes through," FAA Administrator Mike Whitaker told CNBC's Leslie Josephs. "We're shifting from more of an audit approach to a direct inspection approach." The agency earlier this month announced an audit of Boeing's production lines in light of the Jan. 5 incident on an Alaska Airlines flight in which a panel blew out of a 737 Max 9 at 16,000 feet. Whitaker told CNBC the FAA has dispatched a "couple of dozen" inspectors to review the planes, which are grounded.

4. NH down

Former president Donald Trump defeated former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley in the New Hampshire Republican primary, clinching a second key victory after his win at the Iowa caucus. Haley is the last Republican standing to pose a challenge to Trump after Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis suspended his campaign over the weekend. But Haley has no plans to follow suit, at least for the moment. "This race is far from over," she said in a speech after NBC News and other networks called the state's primary for Trump. "There are dozens of states left to go. And the next one is my sweet state of South Carolina."

5. TASE stake

Hedge fund billionaire Bill Ackman and his wife Neri Oxman have agreed to take a nearly 5% stake in the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange for about $25 million. Ackman has been a vocal supporter of Israel since the Oct. 7 attacks by Hamas and recently told CNBC's Andrew Ross Sorkin he was putting more time and money toward combatting antisemitism. Oxman is an American-Israeli professor and architectural designer. "This kind of activism now requires… a serious team," Ackman said in the Jan. 12 interview. "We're going to go after these issues in a very aggressive way."

– CNBC's Hakyung Kim, Sarah Whitten, Alex Sherman, Leslie Josephs, Ryan Anastasio, Kevin Breuninger, Dan Mangan, Rebecca Picciotto, Chelsey Cox and Natasha Turak contributed to this report.

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Correction: Bill Ackman and his wife's stake in the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange is worth about $25 million. An earlier version of this newsletter misstated the figure.