5 things to know before the stock market opens January 29, 2021

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

J&J’s highly anticipated vaccine results were based on 468 confirmed Covid cases among the phase three trial’s more than 43,000 volunteers, including those infected with the new, highly contagious strain found in South Africa. J&J also said the vaccine was 85% effective in preventing severe disease four weeks after vaccination in all adults. If the J&J vaccine gets cleared by the FDA, it would be the third approved for emergency use in the U.S., behind the Pfizer–BioNTech vaccine and Moderna’s, both of which require two doses.

U.S.-based biotech firm Novavax said late Thursday its vaccine was more than 89% effective in protecting against the coronavirus. In its phase three clinical trial conducted in Britain, the two-shot vaccine appeared to be 85.6% effective against the new strain originally found in that country. However, in a phase two study in South Africa, the Novavax was only 49.4% effective against the new variant found there. Shares of Novavax surged nearly 60% in Friday’s premarket.

Robinhood raised $1 billion overnight from investors to shore up its balance sheet as the brokerage app was set to ease restrictions in the trading of certain volatile stocks, according to CNBC’s Andrew Ross Sorkin. The money raised was on top of the $500 million the broker accessed through credit lines to ensure it had the capital required to keep allowing its clients to trade stocks like GameStop and AMC Entertainment. Robinhood CEO Vlad Tenev told CNBC tapping the credit lines was a proactive measure and denied it was because of a liquidity issue. After stumbling a day earlier, GameStop and AMC shares surged 90% and 60% in Friday’s premarket, respectively.

Robinhood restricted trading in cryptocurrencies Friday as the price of bitcoin and a meme-inspired token rose sharply after Elon Musk tweets.

Bitcoin skyrocketed as much as 20% early Friday to about $38,100 after Musk added #bitcoin to his Twitter bio. The Tesla CEO also sent out a cryptic tweet: “In retrospect, it was inevitable.” The world’s most valuable cryptocurrency hit an all-time high of $41,940 earlier this month before sinking sharply a week later.

Dogecoin, originally founded as a joke about a dog meme, soared as much as 800% on Thursday after a Reddit board talked about making it the cryptocurrency equivalent of GameStop. Musk tweeted out Thursday evening a picture of a magazine cover of “Dogue,” play on popular fashion title “Vogue.”

Democrats on Capitol Hill and the White House rejected a Republican pitch to split President Joe Biden‘s $1.9 trillion coronavirus rescue plan into smaller chunks. Democrats appeared ready to push the measure through without GOP help. Success would give Biden a signature accomplishment in his first 100 days in office, unleashing money to expand vaccinations and reopen schools, send $1,400 direct payments to households, and other priorities, including a gradual increase in the federal minimum wage to $15 per hour. Failure would be a high-profile setback early in his presidency.

— The Associated Press contributed to this report. Follow all the developments on Wall Street in real time with CNBC Pro’s live markets blog. Get the latest on the pandemic with our coronavirus blog.