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5 Things to Know Before the Stock Market Opens Friday

NYSE

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

1. Stock futures flat after rout on inflation, Fed fears

The Marriner S. Eccles Federal Reserve building in Washington, D.C., U.S., on Sunday, Dec. 19, 2021.
Samuel Corum | Bloomberg | Getty Images
The Marriner S. Eccles Federal Reserve building in Washington, D.C., U.S., on Sunday, Dec. 19, 2021.

U.S. stock futures turned higher Friday, one day after a sharp sell-off that was prompted by hotter-than-expected inflation data and St. Louis Federal Reserve President James Bullard's call for 100 basis points worth of interest rate increases by July 1. To get that done, central bankers would have to do at least one 50 basis point hike if they were to act each time during their three regularly scheduled meetings — March, May and June — before Bullard's deadline. Citi economists now see the Fed making the more aggressive 50 basis point increase in March. The market expects six 25 basis point hikes this year, starting in March, to tamp down soaring inflation.

2. 10-year yield holds above 2% at August 2019 highs

The 10-year Treasury yield ticked lower Friday but remained above 2%, a level reached Thursday for the first time since August 2019. The 2-year Treasury yield, the most sensitive duration to policy interest rates, traded around 1.6% on Friday after surging 26 basis points in the prior session, the biggest single-day move since 2009. Wall Street will be looking to Tuesday's release of the producer price index to see if inflation at the wholesale level ran as hot last month as Thursday's consumer prices report showed.

3. Dow, S&P 500 and Nasdaq weekly gains on the bubble

If the market closes higher Friday, the Dow Jones Industrial Average, the S&P 500 and the Nasdaq could all post gains for the week. All three stock benchmarks were higher last week, with the S&P 500 and Nasdaq logging their best weeks of the year. The Nasdaq, still in a correction, sank 2.1% on Thursday. The S&P 500 lost 1.8% and the Dow fell 526 points or nearly 1.5%. All three had briefly turned positive intraday Thursday before closing lower on concerns about rising inflation and how aggressive the Fed will be in fighting it.

4. Morning movers: Under Armour, Zillow and Affirm

The interior of an Under Armour store is seen on November 03, 2021 in Houston, Texas.
Brandon Bell | Getty Images
The interior of an Under Armour store is seen on November 03, 2021 in Houston, Texas.

Under Armour shares, after initially jumping 7%, fell 2.5% in the premarket despite the retailer on Friday reporting fiscal fourth-quarter earnings and sales ahead of analysts' estimates, as a cloudy outlook hampered by lingering supply chain constraints overshadowed those results. The company also warned that heightened freight expenses will weigh on profit margins in the coming months.

The Zillow app on a mobile phone arranged in Dobbs Ferry, New York, U.S., on Saturday, May 1, 2021.
Tiffany Hagler-Geard | Bloomberg | Getty Images
The Zillow app on a mobile phone arranged in Dobbs Ferry, New York, U.S., on Saturday, May 1, 2021.

Zillow Group shares rose 13.5% in Friday's premarket, the morning after the real estate website operator reported a much narrower-than-expected adjusted quarterly loss of 42 cents per share. The company's revenue was also better than expected. Zillow said it's getting out of the home-flipping business more quickly and economically than it previously expected.

Affirm Holdings Inc. website home screen on a smartphone arranged in Little Falls, New Jersey, on Wednesday, Dec. 9, 2020.
Gabby Jones | Bloomberg | Getty Images
Affirm Holdings Inc. website home screen on a smartphone arranged in Little Falls, New Jersey, on Wednesday, Dec. 9, 2020.

Affirm shares dropped another 10% in the premarket. The buy now, pay later company sank more than 21% on Thursday after releasing fiscal second-quarter results ahead of schedule. Affirm lost 57 cents per share on $361 million in revenue. The company said human error was to blame for putting the results out early.

5. Biden tells Americans in Ukraine to get out now

Service members of the Ukrainian Armed Forces drive a tank during military exercises in Kharkiv region, Ukraine February 10, 2022.
Vyacheslav Madiyevskyy | Reuters
Service members of the Ukrainian Armed Forces drive a tank during military exercises in Kharkiv region, Ukraine February 10, 2022.

President Joe Biden is urging U.S. citizens to leave Ukraine immediately as tensions with Russia over its military activity continue to intensify. "We're dealing with one of the largest armies in the world. This is a very different situation, and things could go crazy quickly," Biden said in an interview that ran Thursday on "NBC Nightly News." Russia began a 10-day program of military exercises with its neighbor Belarus on Thursday. NATO estimated 30,000 Russian troops were taking part, marking Moscow's biggest military deployment in Belarus since the Cold War.

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