Bitcoin, Vaxart, Devon Energy, Tesla: What to Watch When the Stock Market Opens Today

Stock futures wavered and the 10-year Treasury yield climbed above 1.6% for the first time since June ahead of jobs data that is expected to show a drop in the unemployment rate. Here’s what we’re watching ahead of Friday’s open. 

  • Bitcoin rose 2.4% from its price at 5 p.m. ET on Thursday, and stocks in the crypto world were also gaining. The SEC approved Volt Equity’s ETF, which aims to track companies that hold a majority of their assets in bitcoin or derive most of their earnings from bitcoin-related activities. Coinbase COIN 0.48% was up 1.1% premarket, and bitcoin miner Marathon Digital MARA -1.39% gained 2.2%.
  • Vaxart VXRT -0.14% shares jumped 9.7% premarket after the company said its oral Covid-19 vaccine candidate has shown it could reduce the airborne transmission of the virus in an animal model.
  • Fellow vaccine makers Moderna MRNA 2.29% and Novavax, NVAX 2.34% that have suffered price stumbles recently, were also on the rise premarket, up by 0.9% and 1.6% respectively.
  • Crude prices are climbing, and shares of energy producers are following them higher. Occidental Petroleum OXY 1.50% added 1.3% premarket, Devon Energy DVN -0.72% gained 1.8% and oil-services company Halliburton HAL 1.70% rose 1.1%.

A pump jack operated at a well site leased by Devon Energy Production Company near Guthrie, Okla., Sept. 15, 2015.

Photo: nick oxford/Reuters

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Write to James Willhite at james.willhite@wsj.com

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