Stock Market Today: Dow Ekes Out a Win Despite Nike Miss

It was a choppy day of trading as the major market indexes took time to catch their breath after a volatile week.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell more than 116 points out of the gate as Nike (NKE, -6.3%) stock plunged on the heels of the athletic apparel retailer's fiscal first-quarter revenue miss, announced Thursday after the markets closed. Nike also cut its fiscal 2022 forecast amid supply chain issues and production shutdowns in Vietnam.

In the wake of Nike's report, CFRA analyst Garrett Nelson downgraded the stock to Hold from Strong Buy. "With one of the strongest global brands and a strong balance sheet, we believe the company will eventually recover," he says. "It will just take time."

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However, the blue-chip index closed up 0.1% at 34,798, thanks to cloud stock Salesforce.com (CRM, +2.8%), which continued to gain ground following yesterday's updated guidance.

The S&P 500 Index also finished in positive territory, adding 0.2% to 4,455, on strength in the financial (+0.5%) and energy (+0.8%) sectors.

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And while the Nasdaq Composite slipped 0.03% to 15,047, it did finish well off its session lows.

Other news in the stock market today:

• The small-cap Russell 2000 gave back 0.5% to 2,248.
• Costco Wholesale (COST) was a post-earnings winner, gaining 3.3% in the wake of its fiscal fourth-quarter report. For the three-month period, COST reported adjusted earnings of $3.90 per share on $62.7 billion in revenues, above the $3.57 per share and $61.3 billion analysts were expecting. Despite the beat, CFRA analyst Arun Sundaram kept a Hold rating on the retailer. "Going forward, inflationary pressures are expected to intensify, mostly driven by higher product, labor and freight costs," he says. "Like other club stores, COST will absorb some cost inflation, which will likely lead to some margin pressure over the next few quarters."
• Roku (ROKU, -3.8%) took a notable slide today after Wells Fargo downgraded the streaming stock to Equal Weight from Overweight (the equivalents of Hold and Buy, respectively). The research firm cited increasing competition from the likes of Amazon.com (AMZN) and Comcast (CMCSA), which has made "ROKU's valuation more constrained." And while they like the stock's story, "its ability to outperform requires results that exceed already high expectations."
• U.S. crude oil futures gained 0.9% to settle at $73.98 per barrel, marking their fourth win in a row.
• Gold futures rose 0.1% to end at $1,751.70 an ounce.
• The CBOE Volatility Index (VIX) slid 4.7% to 17.75.

One Big Headline Today: Bitcoin

"Bloomberg reported that China's central bank declared crypto transactions were illicit financial activities and that non-fiat cryptocurrencies were not to be circulated," says Richard Repetto, managing director at Piper Sandler.

"The news this morning comes approximately three months after China cracked down on cryptocurrency mining, which also triggered a global sell-off in crypto markets."

Bitcoin was down 9.2% at one point, but finished the regular trading session off a slimmer 5.3% at $42,409.05 (Bitcoin trades 24 hours a day; prices reported here are as of 4 p.m. each trading day).

Today's price action underscores how volatile cryptocurrency can be – and that the high-risk investment must be approached with extreme care. For those wanting an introduction – or possibly a refresher course – to digital currencies, here's a breakdown of the biggest players in the space.

And for more risk-averse investors who are still crypto-curious, consider these larger, established companies that have exposure to this technology. Read on as we highlight seven stocks (and one fund) that have embraced the cryptocurrency space.