Here are the most important news items that investors need to start their trading day:
1. Bearish
Investors got a fresh bearish signal on Thursday, as all major indexes closed below their 50-day moving averages. For the Dow Jones Industrial Average, it was the first time doing so since June 1. The 30-stock index fell 0.84% during the session, while the S&P 500 dropped 0.77%, and the Nasdaq Composite declined 1.17%. All three indexes are headed for a losing week — what would be the third straight down week for the Nasdaq and the S&P. The Dow is on pace for its worst week since March. Follow live market updates.
2. Common threads
After a monster week of earnings reports, it's clear not all retailers are made equal. Big-box giants Target and Walmart both reported fiscal second-quarter results this week and, as CNBC's Melissa Repko points out, revealed some big differences. Target fell short of Wall Street's revenue expectations for the period, while Walmart outperformed. Target's online sales fell, while Walmart's rose. Target continued to suffer from softness in discretionary spending, while Walmart saw "modest improvement." And, perhaps most telling, Target sees more pain ahead, cutting its forecast for the full year, while Walmart was explicitly "optimistic" about the back half of the year.
3. Late night sell-off
Bitcoin abruptly sank late Thursday, shedding as much as 9%. As of Friday morning it's trading just about $26,000. Many investors are still searching for what caused the sell-off but it's possible that it's related to a Wall Street Journal story that said Elon Musk's rocket company, SpaceX, wrote down its bitcoin holdings over the last two years and sold off the virtual currency. "This is one of the most brutal minute-by-minute sell-offs we've seen in the history of bitcoin," Ryan Rasmussen, a researcher at Bitwise Asset Management, told CNBC, adding that it's "short-sighted and largely retail-driven."
4. Chapter 15
Evergrande Group, China's heavily indebted property giant, filed for bankruptcy protection in the U.S. on Thursday. You may remember Evergrande from 2021, when it defaulted on its loans and sent shock waves through China's property sector. In March, it announced an offshore debt restructuring program, which according to a bankruptcy filing in Manhattan court, includes proceedings in Hong Kong, the Cayman Islands and the British Virgin Islands. Evergrande filed for Chapter 15 protection, which deals with cross-border insolvency. In a separate statement Friday, Evergrande said, "The application is a normal procedure for the offshore debt restructuring and does not involve bankruptcy petition." The filing comes as the Chinese real estate market is already on edge, with fears that troubles could spill over into other sectors of the economy.
5. Cash strapped
Americans seemingly can't stop living paycheck to paycheck. According to a LendingClub report, 61% of U.S. adults in June were relying on their next influx to cover basic expenses. And according to a survey from Bankrate, more than 70% of Americans don't feel financially secure. When you break down the math, it's easy to see why. The typical U.S. worker takes home about $3,300 per month after taxes and benefits, based on data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. Meanwhile, monthly expenses can reach $2,800, amounting to roughly 85% of median take-home pay. (And that's before child care or debt payments.)
– CNBC's Sarah Min, Melissa Repko, Darla Mercado, Sumathi Bala and Juhohn Lee contributed to this report.
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