US stocks fall as investors digest news of Evergrande's missed payment deadline

• US stocks fell on Friday as investors digest the news of Evergrande's missed payment deadline.
• Government bond yields rose after the Fed indicated interest rates may rise sooner than expected.
• Bitcoin, ether, and major altcoins tumbled on news that China will ban all crypto transactions.

US stocks fell on Friday as investors digested the news of Evergrande's missed payment deadline.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell after soaring 506 points in the previous session. The technology-heavy Nasdaq-100 also edged lower.

Here's where US indexes stood at the 9:30 a.m. ET open on Friday:

• S&P 500: 4,441.78, down 0.16%
• Dow Jones Industrial Average: 34,756.28, down0.02% (8.54 points)
• Nasdaq Composite: 14,976.10, down 0.49%

The debt crisis at the beleaguered Chinese property firm has roiled global markets in the past week. While markets have calmed in the last day, concerns were reignited after the Thursday deadline for Evergrade to make its crucial $83 million bond interest payment passed without any announcement.

But Oleg Melentyev, credit strategist at Bank of America, said he believes the market rout has little to do with the Evergrande crisis.

"The Evergrande situation brought little new information going into this week," he said in a note Friday. "The strong volatility it caused in the US markets was a delayed reaction to events that were unfolding for months but were largely ignored."

Melentyev added that the situation "downgraded it to a less significant status in late August," once China Huarong Asset Management was effectively resolved.

"We have assumed Evergrande will be a restructuring story for some time, so recent developments don't really change our views."

The key question, he said, is whether the Chinese government will choose to intervene in the restructuring process. China's central bank, however, injected $17 billion of cash into the banking system Thursday in an attempt to calm some nerves.

Evergrande for now has a 30-day grace period to meet its obligation. If it doesn't pay by then, it will be in default.

Meanwhile, US government bonds slipped Friday as investors after the Federal Open Market Committee's outlook revealed half of the officials expect the first rate hike to arrive next year.

The yield on the 10-year Treasury note rose to 1.434%, while the yield on the 30-year Treasury bond reach 1.947%. Yields move inversely to prices.

Bitcoin, ether, and major altcoins tumbled Friday on news that China will completely ban all crypto transactions.

Oil prices moved lower. West Texas Intermediate crude slipped 0.20%, to $73.15 per barrel. Brent crude, oil's international benchmark, fell 0.09%, to $77.18 per barrel.

Gold was mostly flat, slipping 0.01%, to $1,745.70 per ounce.