The Market In 5 Minutes: Jobless Claims Fall, Walmart Upgrade, Cryptocurrencies

IN THE NEWS

Five weed stocks to watch in 2018: Link

Just as the global cryptocurrency market is hitting its biggest rough patch in months, two new ETFs based on blockchain technology are making their market debuts. The Reality Shares Nadaq NextGen Ecconomy ETF BLCN and the Amplify Transformational Data Sharing ETF BLOK are now open for business: Link

EXACT Sciences Corporation EXAS stock tumbled nearly 10 percent Wednesday after the American Society of Clinical Oncology announced results from a new study on liquid biopsy tests for colorectal cancer that could pose a threat to EXACT’s Cologuard home screening test: Link

Apple Inc. AAPL said it would pay a one-time tax of $38 billion on its overseas cash holdings and ramp up spending in the U.S., as it seeks to emphasize its contributions to the American economy after years of taking criticism for outsourcing manufacturing to China: Link $

The owner of the New York Stock Exchange is launching a service to bring bitcoin data to hedge funds and other professional trading firms, the latest sign that the once-fringe market for cryptocurrencies is being taken seriously by Wall Street: Link $

Threats of a potential cryptocurrency trading ban in South Korea have scared many investors away, but some veterans of the young market are defiant, saying restrictions would be relatively easy to circumvent: Link

Data center computers with Intel Corp’s INTC newer chips might reboot more often than normal because of problems with the patches issued to fix the so-called Spectre and Meltdown security flaws, the company said on Wednesday: Link

Speaker Paul Ryan is once again herding the fractious Republican House majority toward passage of a temporary government funding plan that satisfies no one and leaves Democrats fuming: Link

ECONOMIC DATA

• USA Housing Starts for Dec 1.19M vs 1.27M Est; Housing Starts (MoM) for Dec -8.20% vs 3.30% Prior
• USA Building Permits for Dec 1.30M vs 1.29M Est; Prior 1.30M., Building Permits (MoM) for Dec -0.10% vs -1.00% Prior
• USA Philadelphia Fed Manufacturing Index for Jan 22.20 vs 25.00 Est; Prior 27.90
• USA Initial Jobless Claims for Jan 12 220.0K vs 250.0K Est; Continuing Claims for Jan 5 1.95M vs 1.90M Est; Prior Revised from 1.87M to 1.88M
• The Energy Information Administration’s weekly report on natural gas stocks in underground storage is schedule for release at 10:30 a.m. ET.
• The EIA’s weekly report on petroleum inventories will be released at 11:00 a.m. ET.
• Data on money supply for the latest week will be released at 4:30 p.m. ET.
• Cleveland Federal Reserve Bank President Loretta Mester is set to speak in New York at 6:05 p.m. ET.

ANALYST RATINGS

• Jefferies upgraded Alarm.com ALRM from Hold to Buy
• Goldman Sachs upgraded Walmart WMT from Neutral to Buy.
• Mizuho upgraded Lennar LEN from Neutral to Buy
• Nomura downgraded Comcast CMCSA from Buy to Neutral
• Jefferies downgraded Symantec SYMC from Hold to Underperform

This is a tool used by the Benzinga News Desk each trading day — it's a look at everything happening in the market, in five minutes. To get the full version of this note every morning, click here.