5 things to know before the stock market opens Friday - CNBC

1. Dow set for drop at Friday's open and weekly loss

A woman wearing a protective mask walks past the New York Stock Exchange on March 12, 2020. in New York City.

Pablo Monsalve | VIEWpress | Corbis via Getty Images

Dow futures were pointing to a decline at Friday's open after the government's March employment report. Nonfarm payrolls declined 701,000 last month, far greater than estimates. The unemployment rate rose to 4.4%. The data sample, which was taken before states started issuing stay-at-home orders, portends more devastation ahead from the coronavirus economic halt. Weekly jobless claims more than doubled to over 6.6 million last week. The government's April employment report, out next month, is expected to be much worse. The Dow Jones Industrial Average, still firmly in a bear market, gained 470 points Thursday. But it was on pace for its third negative week in the past four. Last week, the Dow logged its best weekly gain since 1938.

2. CDC expected to recommend masks in public

3. US has nearly 25% of all known coronavirus cases

Global coronavirus cases have surpassed more than 1 million with 53,974 deaths and over 206,000 recoveries, according to Johns Hopkins University data. America has nearly a quarter of the world's cases with over 245,500 known infections, the most of any nation by far. The U.S. death toll has exceeded 6,000. Italy and Spain have half the cases but many more deaths. Italy has the most fatalities with 13,915. Spain has the second most with deaths with 10,953.

New York, with nearly 93,000 cases, and New Jersey, with over 25,500, account for nearly half of all U.S. infections. White House coronavirus advisor Dr. Deborah Birx said at Thursday evening's briefing that about 35% of all coronavirus tests administered in New York and New Jersey have been positive.

4. Banks not ready for small business loan program

Millions of small businesses are expected to apply for desperately needed rescue loans starting Friday. However, none of the participating banks interviewed by CNBC was sure they'd be ready. JPMorgan Chase, the biggest U.S. bank, was the first lender to publicly say what others had whispered, emailing customers late Thursday that it "will most likely not be able to start accepting applications on Friday, April 3rd as we had hoped." The program to disburse $350 billion in forgivable loans is a crucial component of the $2 trillion stimulus package signed into law by Trump last week. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said on CNBC this week that he would ask Congress for more funding if that money ran out.

5. HBO offers some TV shows and movies for free

Silicon Valley cast discusses series finale in San Francisco

HBO, a division of AT&T's WarnerMedia, is offering a bunch of TV shows, including the "Silicon Valley" series, and movies for free beginning on Friday. Customers can access them on any platform where HBO Now and HBO Go are supported, which includes iPhones, Android devices, smart TVs and streaming boxes such as Roku, Apple TV and Amazon Fire TV. HBO said the initial plan is to provide the free content for a month. Earlier this week, AT&T said it's replacing WarnerMedia CEO John Stankey with Hulu co-founder Jason Kilar, effective May 1. WarnerMedia has been searching for a new leader since Stankey was elevated to AT&T's chief operating officer in September.

— Follow all the developments on Wall Street in real-time with CNBC's live markets blog.

— Reuters and The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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5 things to know before the stock market opens Friday - CNBC
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