5 things to know before the stock market opens Friday, Sept 24

Here are the most important news, trends and analysis that investors need to start their trading day:

The Dow’s 506 point surge Thursday and Wednesday’s 338 point jump more than made up for Tuesday’s slight drop and Monday’s 614 point plunge. The S&P 500 also saw back-to-back gains. The Nasdaq advanced for three straight sessions. All three stock benchmarks, while still down for the month, were roughly 2% shy of their most recent record closes.

Shares of Dow stock Nike dropped 5% in Friday’s premarket, the morning after the company said global supply chain congestion is hurting the business more than it anticipated. The sneaker giant lowered its fiscal 2022 outlook. Nike did beat estimates on earnings but missed on revenue.

Bitcoin plunged Friday, with traders rattled by tough talk out of China on cryptocurrencies. In a Q&A posted to its website, the People’s Bank of China said services offering trading, order matching, token issuance and derivatives for virtual currencies are strictly prohibited. Overseas crypto exchanges providing services in mainland China are also illegal, China’s central bank said. Bitcoin fell 7% to under $42,000. It hit an all-time high over $64,000 in April, but sold off in June and July, even dipping briefly below $30,000. Since mid-July, bitcoin had been gaining ground, making a recent top around $52,000 earlier this month.

The U.S. 10-year Treasury yield rose to more than 1.42% on Friday, back to highs seen in July. The yield, which moves in the opposite direction to price, declined earlier this week when investors sought safety and bought bonds as the deteriorating China Evergrande Group situation slammed stocks Monday. However, as worries faded about the risk of financial contagion if the Chinese property giant were to collapse, U.S. Treasury prices dropped and yields rose. Evergrande has not said whether it will make an $83 million payment on a U.S. dollar denominated bond that was due Thursday. The embattled Chinese developer made a payment on a local bond Wednesday.

The head of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention overruled an advisory panel Friday, approving the distribution of Pfizer‘s Covid boosters to a wide array of workers across the U.S. CDC Director Dr. Rochelle Walensky signed off on a series of recommendations from the panel, including distributing the shots to older Americans and adults with underlying medical conditions at least six months after their second shots. But in…