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5 things to know before the stock market opens Feb. 26, 2021

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

1. Stocks try to recover from Thursday’s tech-led rout

Traders work on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange.

NYSE

U.S. stock futures were choppy as tech stocks tried to recover from Thursday’s rout that dragged the Nasdaq down 3.5% for its worst single-day performance since October. Tesla fell slightly again in Friday’s premarket, a day after sinking 8% in a brutal week. The Dow Jones Industrial Average on Thursday sank 559 points, or 1.8%, from a record closing high the previous session. The Dow had its worst day in nearly a month and so did the S&P 500, which lost almost 2.5%. The culprit behind the selloff was the rapid rise in bond yields.

All three stock benchmarks were tracking for weekly losses. Ahead of the final trading day of February, the Nasdaq was clinging to a gain for the month, which started off strong. The Nasdaq was down nearly 7% from its Feb. 12 record closing high. The Dow and S&P 500 both remain solidly in the green for the month. However, the S&P 500 was off almost 2.7% from its last record closing high, also on Feb. 12.

2. 10-year Treasury yield retreats slightly from one-year high

The 10-year Treasury yield retreated Friday morning, but remained above 1.4%, after surging to 1.6% in the previous session to its highest level since February 2020 and more than 0.5% higher since the end of January. The spike in the 10-year yield, which is used as a benchmark for mortgage rates and auto loans, has been driven by expectations of improving economic conditions as coronavirus vaccines are rolled out, as well as fears of higher inflation.

A fresh round of government stimulus checks, approved in December, sent personal income up to its biggest monthly gain since April 2020 though inflation remained tame. The Commerce Department reported Friday morning that personal income rose 10% in January, slightly beating expectations. Personal consumption expenditure inflation matched estimates at 1.5%.

3. House to pass Covid bill; Senate official says no minimum wage

Service industry workers speak in support of the introduction of the Raise the Wage Act, which includes a $15 minimum wage for tipped workers, on Jan. 26, 2021 in Washington.

Jemal Countess | Getty Images Entertainment | Getty Images

Inflation worries are being stoked on the thought that the $1.9 trillion Covid stimulus bill — which is seen passing the House on Friday — on top of accelerating growth could overheat the economy. Democrats on Capitol Hill are trying to push their relief measure, including a federal minimum wage boost to $15 per hour, through without GOP support. However, a key nonpartisan official, the Senate parliamentarian, ruled Democrats cannot include the minimum wage increase in the bill. The decision means the Senate will likely pass a different version of the bill than the House, and representatives will have to approve the plan a second time.

4. FDA panel to vote on J&J’s single-shot Covid vaccine

A healthcare worker fills a syringe from a vial with a dose of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine against the COVID-19 coronavirus as South Africa proceeds with its inoculation campaign at the Klerksdorp Hospital on February 18, 2021.

Phill Magakoe | AFP | Getty Images

A key FDA advisory panel is set to vote Friday on whether to recommend approval of Johnson & Johnson’s single-shot Covid vaccine for emergency use, which would help pave the way for a third preventive treatment in the U.S. While the full FDA doesn’t have to follow the vaccine committee’s recommendation, it often does. During similar requests by Pfizer and Moderna for vaccines, the FDA authorized those companies’ two-shot regimes a day after the panel of outside medical advisors backed emergency use authorization.

5. DoorDash stock falls after company drops first results since IPO

A DoorDash Inc. delivery bag sits on the floor at Chef Geoff’s restaurant in Washington, D.C.

Andrew Harrer | Bloomberg | Getty Images

As more and more Americans are vaccinated and the economy continues to open up more fully, companies like DoorDash, which has benefited from the stay-at-home trade, could get hurt. In its first report as a public company, the food delivery service told shareholders it expects some of the tailwinds it experienced from stay-at-home orders across the U.S. will turn around once the country gets the virus under control. Shares sank 10% in Friday premarket. Even with that drop, DoorDash would still be up nearly 50% from its $102 per share offer price back in December. While DoorDash late Thursday reported $970 million in revenue in the fourth quarter, which beat estimates, it also reported an adjusted per-share loss of $2.67.

— Follow all the developments on Wall Street in real time with CNBC Pro’s live markets blog. Get the latest on the pandemic with our coronavirus blog.

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GameStop frenzy leads to unrealistic expectations for returns

CNBC’s Jim Cramer on Thursday questioned “are prices real” on Wall Street anymore, as he exasperatingly tried to explain GameStop’s rally of as much as 175% over the past two days.

“I think the average American right now is trying to figure out how do I find a stock that triples,” Cramer said. “‘Forget what you guys are talking about with the FAANG. I want a triple.'” FAANG, an acronym coined by Cramer, stands for big tech stocks — Facebook, Amazon, Apple, Netflix and Alphabet’s Google.

“It is what people want. They want a triple. That’s not necessarily what we can provide,” the “Mad Money” host said. “Robinhood wants it. WallStreetBets wants it,” he added, referring to the online brokerage popular with young investors and the Reddit forum at the center of the GameStop saga.

Against the backdrop of the economic damage from the coronavirus pandemic, Cramer said incredulously that GameStop is “what’s gripping America” and the investing public.

The online-driven trading frenzy around the video game retailer ignited again Wednesday, when the stock doubled following the announcement of next month’s departure of Chief Financial Officer Jim Bell. The stock soared over 70% again Thursday at one stage before cutting the gain in half in volatile session.

Cramer said it seems unlikely that a CFO change could be the catalyst for such moves.

Ryan Cohen, a major GameStop investor and co-founder of online pet food retailer Chewy, and GameStop itself have been quiet during the outsized swings that began last month with a hedge fund short-squeeze around $20 per share, which sent the stock soaring 2,300% to as high as $483. GameStop crashed below $50 by mid-February before Wednesday’s spike.

Cohen did post a cryptic tweet Wednesday afternoon, and that had Cramer and the other “Squawk on the Street” hosts speculating on Thursday morning what it could possibly mean.

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5 things to know before the stock market opens Feb. 19, 2021

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

1. Dow futures bounce after biggest one-day February loss

The Wall Street sign is seen outside The New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) in New York, February 16, 2021.

Brendan McDermid | Reuters

U.S. stock futures rose Friday after the Dow Jones Industrial Average, S&P 500 and Nasdaq suffered their biggest one-day losses in the red-hot month of February. The Dow, which broke a three-day winning streak and fell from a record closing high, remained on track for a positive week, which would be its third straight. The S&P 500 and Nasdaq are riding three-day losing streaks and are on pace for their first losing weeks in the past three.

Bitcoin — which topped $52,000 this week — hit another all-time high early Friday near $53,000 per unit. After Tesla and other companies recently showed support for the world’s biggest cryptocurrency, major financial firms also appeared to be warming to it. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen told CNBC on Thursday she believes bitcoin is a “highly speculative asset.”

2. Treasury Secretary Yellen pushes for major Covid stimulus

Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen speaks during a virtual roundtable event with participants from local Black Chambers of Commerce on February 5, 2021 in Washington, DC.

Drew Angerer | Getty Images

As the House aims to pass its version of President Joe Biden’s $1.9 trillion coronavirus relief blueprint by the end of next week, Yellen told CNBC that a large stimulus package is necessary to get the economy back to full strength. “The price of doing too little is much higher than the price of doing something big,” she said.” We think that the benefits will far outweigh the costs in the longer run.” Democrats hope to get their bill through Congress before March 14, when key federal jobless benefit programs expire.

3. Biden to pledge billions in global Covid vaccination aid

President Joe Biden speaks during a meeting with labor leaders on coronavirus relief in the Oval Office on Wednesday, Feb. 17, 2021.

Pete Marovich | Bloomberg | Getty Images

Biden is expected to announce Friday that the U.S. will spend $4 billion on international Covid vaccination efforts. He will make the pledge during his first virtual meeting as president with G-7 leaders. Biden will also urge other nations to put more money toward the global fight against the pandemic.

Later in the day, Biden travels to Michigan to visit Pfizer’s vaccine manufacturing facility in Kalamazoo, a trip that was supposed to happen Thursday but was postponed due winter weather. Biden made his first domestic trip as president Tuesday, traveling to Wisconsin for a CNN town hall on the coronavirus.

4. Uber is dealt a major blow as UK’s top court rules drivers are workers

A driver uses the Uber app to drop off a passenger in London.

Chris J. Ratcliffe | Bloomberg via Getty Images

Shares of Uber dropped 3% in the premarket after the U.K.’s top court ruled Friday that the company’s drivers there should be classified as workers rather than independent contractors. The ruling ends an almost five-year legal battle between Uber and a group of former drivers in Britain. Uber insists its drivers are self-employed and that it acts as more of an “agency” that connects them with passengers through an app. The company weathered a challenge in its home market of California in November, when voters backed a ballot proposal that cemented app-based food delivery and ride-hailing drivers’ status as independent contractors, not employees.

5. Citadel’s Ken Griffin defends controversial Wall Street practice

Ken Griffin, Founder and CEO, Citadel

Mike Blake | Reuters

During Thursday’s GameStop hearing on Capitol Hill, Citadel’s Ken Griffin defended a controversial method brokerages use to make money and said his firm would adapt if new regulations prohibited the practice. Members of Congress spent much of their time prodding about “payment for order flow,” a practice in which a brokerage receives payment from a market maker like Citadel for directing the order to them. This model is how Robinhood and other brokers are able to offer commission-free trading. “I do believe that payment for order flow has been an important source of innovation in the industry,” Griffin said.

— Reuters contributed to this report. Follow all the developments on Wall Street in real time with CNBC Pro’s live markets blog. Get the latest on the pandemic with our coronavirus blog.

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