5 things to know before the stock market opens on February 24, 2021

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

US stock futures fell lower on Wednesday, a day after Wall Street’s wild ride, with the Nasdaq nearly all dropping back nearly 4% to close just 0.5%. The S&P 500 returned a 1.8% decline to close slightly, breaking a five session loss streak. The Dow Jones Industrial Average swept away a 360-point decline, or more than 1%, to close modestly higher for the third consecutive session.

Tuesday’s turnaround, especially in technology stocks, came after Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell told the Senate Banking Committee that inflation is still “soft” and that the economic outlook is still “very uncertain” due to the pandemic. This allayed fears of a policy change by the central bank. Powell appears before the House Financial Services Committee on Wednesday in the second and final installment of his mandated six-monthly economic testimony before Congress.

Food and Drug Administration staff approved Johnson & Johnson’s Covid-19 emergency vaccine, a critical step towards bringing a third shot to the U.S. market. The staff report is intended to inform the FDA’s Advisory Committee on Vaccines and Related Biologicals, which is meeting Friday to review J & J’s request for emergency use authorization. J & J’s shares were higher.

Tesla’s recovery in premarket trading slowed after a major comeback on Tuesday. At one point, when bitcoin prices fell, stocks fell 13%. Tesla recently announced an investment in bitcoin. By Tuesday’s closing bell, it had made up for most of those losses, finishing at just 2.2%. However, Tesla’s slide in four sessions was over 11%, dragging the high-flying share into the red by nearly 1% in 2021. In the past 12 months, it was still up a whopping 287%.

Ark Invest’s Cathie Wood, who has recently had a hot hand, grabbed more than $ 120 million in Tesla stock during Tuesday’s defeat and subsequent comeback. Wood’s purchase may have contributed to the turnaround in Tesla, CNBC’s Jim Cramer tweeted.

Wood told Bloomberg on Tuesday that she is particularly optimistic about Tesla’s taxi service as a bridge to autonomous driving. “We don’t think many analysts will give Tesla credit for autonomous driving. If they were, the stock would be much higher,” she added.

Wood, also a bitcoin bull, told Bloomberg, “” We are very positive about Bitcoin, very happy to see a healthy correction here, no market is straight up. Bitcoin climbed back above $ 50,000 on Wednesday after a major sale earlier this week. Bitcoin is up more than 70% since the year before and more than 400% in the last 12 months.

Square said on Tuesday it bought $ 170 million worth of bitcoin. Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey’s fintech company bought $ 50 million worth of the world’s largest cryptocurrency last year. Dorsey, one of bitcoin’s best-known proponents, once predicted that it would eventually become the Internet’s “common currency”.

GameStop CFO Jim Bell will step down next month. The video game seller said Bell’s resignation was not due to any disagreement with the company over its operations, including accounting principles and practices. A source told Reuters that Bell’s exit was unrelated to the recent Reddit-driven wild swings in GameStop’s stock. However, the source said his departure was initiated by GameStop, in a sign that he was not considered the right person when the retailer turns into a tech-focused company.

Shares of Lowe were up 1% in premarket trading after the home improvement retailer said Wednesday that same-store sales were up 28% in the fourth quarter as consumers spent more on home projects during Covid. Adjusted quarterly earnings of $ 1.33 per share on revenue of $ 20.31 billion exceeded expectations. Lowe echoed the forecast it gave on an investor day in December, when the CFO said home improvement sales are likely to decline in 2021 as more people are vaccinated and spend more time outdoors.

– Reuters contributed to this report. Follow all developments on Wall Street in real time with CNBC Pro’s live market blog. Read the latest news about the pandemic with our coronavirus blog.