• Gap said the all-important holiday season is off to a strong start.
• President-elect Donald Trump's pick for attorney general, Matt Gaetz, withdrew from consideration.
• Bitcoin is nearing $100,000 as its postelection rally continues.

Here are five key things investors need to know to start the trading day:

1. On track

Stocks are on track for a winning week with one session to go. The Dow Jones Industrial Average is up about 1% on the week, the S&P 500 is up 1.3% and the Nasdaq Composite it up 1.5%. Nuveen CIO Saira Malik told CNBC's "Closing Bell" that markets are "finally finding their footing." Follow live market updates.

2. Holiday head start

Apparel retailer Gap said Thursday the all-important holiday season is off to a strong start. The company raised its full-year guidance and is now expecting fiscal 2024 sales to be up as much as 2%, ahead of the 0.4% growth that Wall Street was expecting, according to LSEG estimates. "We are energized about the holiday. Our teams are really focused on executing our plans. If we compare ourselves to where we were last year, our brands are in a much more pronounced place than they were last year," CEO Richard Dickson said.

3. All-time high APR

At least 50 companies jacked up interest rates on store-branded credit cards in the months before the Fed started cutting. Retailers from Big Lots, Gap and Petco to Macy's and Nordstrom raised their card APRs, some by as much as 5 or 6 percentage points. The average interest rate on a store card is now at an all-time high as shoppers head into the holiday shopping season.

4. Stumbled out of the Gaetz

President-elect Donald Trump's pick for attorney general, Matt Gaetz, withdrew from consideration for the post. The former Florida congressman's selection had spurred criticism and brought prior allegations of sexual misconduct to the fore. "While the momentum was strong, it is clear that my confirmation was unfairly becoming a distraction to the critical work of the Trump/Vance Transition," he said in a statement on X.

5. Coin chase

Bitcoin is nearing $100,000 as its postelection rally continues. The cryptocurrency breached $99,000 for the first time Thursday, fueled by a spike in funding rates and open interest on the futures market during trading in Asia. Rob Ginsberg, an analyst at Wolfe Research, says "the chase is on" and that the "real test" will come when bitcoin enters six digits.

– CNBC's Jesse Pound, Gabrielle Fonrouge, Kevin Breuninger and Tanaya Macheel contributed to this report.