The Market In 5 Minutes: China, OPEC, Banks, Bitcoin And More

IN THE NEWS

Week after week in 2018, cryptocurrency investors have been hit by a stream of negative headlines about increasing regulation and cryptocurrency-related thefts, hacks and scams. But even in a market that's known for its volatility, the negative headlines don’t seem to be inducing as much extreme volatility as they have in the past: Link

Coming into 2018, many traders expected the environment of rising interest rates, financial sector deregulation and a booming U.S. economy to create the perfect environment for bank stocks. Unfortunately, the Financial Select Sector SPDR Fund XLF is down 1.7 percent so far this year: Link

Google GOOG will invest $550 million in Chinese e-commerce powerhouse JD.com JD, part of the U.S. internet giant’s efforts to expand its presence in fast-growing Asian markets and battle rivals including Amazon.com AMZN: Link

China’s threat to impose duties on U.S. oil imports will hit a business that has soared in the last two years, and which is now worth almost $1 billion per month: Link

A wave of expected major-media mergers would transform AT&T Inc. T and Comcast Corp. CMCSA into the two most indebted companies in the world, a standing that carries uncharted risks for investors in the firms’ bonds: Link $

U.S. corporate earnings growth looks poised to slow from a blistering pace, posing a potential new challenge to a long bull market that is already contending with slower global-growth momentum and rising interest rates: Link

OPEC members are discussing a compromise agreement that would see oil production increase between 300k-600k barrels a day over the next few months according to sources: Link $

ECONOMIC DATA

• The housing market index for June is schedule for release at 10:00 a.m. ET.
• The Treasury is set to auction 3-and 6-month bills at 11:30 a.m. ET.
• Atlanta Federal Reserve Bank President Raphael Bostic is set to speak in Savannah at 1:00 p.m. ET.
• New York Federal Reserve Bank President John Williams will speak in New York at 4:00 p.m. ET.

ANALYST RATINGS

• B. Riley upgrades Francesca's FRAN from Neutral to Buy
• RBC upgrades PTC Therapeutics PTCT from Sector Perform to Outperform
• Pivotal downgrades Disney DIS from Hold to Sell
• Pivotal downgrades Discovery DISCA from Buy to Hold

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.