The Market In 5 Minutes: Bank Of England Cut Interest Rates For The First Time In 7 Years

Below 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. Apply for daily AM access by clicking here or email minutes@benzinga.com.

Macro Focus

Futures for the Dow Jones Industrial Average climbed 60 points to 18,328.00, while the Standard & Poor’s 500 index futures gained 6.25 points to 2,163.00. Futures for the Nasdaq 100 index rose 7.25 points to 4,734.50.

Oil prices traded higher as Brent crude futures declined 1 percent to trade at $42.67 per barrel, while US WTI crude futures also fell 0.61 percent to trade at $40.58 a barrel.

The Bank of England cut interest rates from 0.5 percent to 0.25 percent - a record low and the first cut since 2009.

Data on initial jobless claims for the latest week will be released at 8:30 a.m. ET.
Data on factory orders for June will be released at 10:00 a.m. ET.
The Energy Information Administration’s weekly report on natural gas stocks is schedule for release at 10:30 a.m. ET.
Data on money supply for the recent week will be released at 4:30 p.m. ET.

BZ News Desk Focus

Tesla TSLA Reports Q2 Adj. EPS $(1.06) vs $(0.52) Est., Q2 Sales $1.56B vs $1.62B Est.
First Solar FSLR Reports Q2 Adj. EPS $0.87 vs. Est. $0.55, Rev. $934M vs. Est. $862M
Herbalife HLF Reports Q2 EPS $1.29 vs. Est. $1.21, Rev. $1.2B vs. Est. $1.19B
Chesapeake Energy CHK Reports Q2 Adj. EPS $(0.14) vs $(0.11) Est., Sales $1.622B vs $1.93B Est.
Square SQ Reports Q2 Adj. EBITDA $13M, EPS $(0.08) vs $(0.11) Est., Sales $438.533M vs $405.7M Est.
Regeneron REGN Reports Q2 Adj. EPS $2.82 vs $2.65 Est., Sales $1.213B vs $1.24B Est.
Viacom VIAB Reports Q3 Adj. EPS $1.05 vs $1.01 Est., Sales $3.107B vs $3.01B Est.

Sell-Side Themes

Oppenheimer initiated coverage on LendingClub LC and On Deck ONDK at Perform.

Sell-Side's Most Noteworthy Calls

JMP Securities downgraded Vitae Pharmaceuticals VTAE to Market Perform.
Barclays downgraded FleetMatics FLTX to Equal-Weight.
Raymond James upgraded Spirit Airlines SAVE to Strong Buy.
BTIG upgraded Celgene CELG to Buy.
Chardan started coverage on Sunworks SUNW at Buy.

Deal Talk

Galenica announced that its indirect wholly owned subsidiary, Vifor Pharma USA, is commencing its previously announced tender offer for any and all outstanding shares of common stock of Relypsa RLYP at a price of $32 per share in cash, without interest and less applicable withholding taxes.

Shares of Twitter TWTR surged higher Wednesday on unconfirmed market chatter of a potential takeover offer from former Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer and Saudi Prince Alwaleed. Steve Ballmer declined comment in an email to CNBC, while tech analyst Bob Peck said Twitter will not sell itself.

In The News

Republican Vice Presidential candidate Mike Pence endorsed Speaker Paul Ryan. The conflicting messaging at the top of the GOP ticket came as the Trump campaign sought to keep Republicans from abandoning their party’s nominee after a week of miscues.

Yahoo YHOO CEO Marissa Mayer spoke with Bloomberg about corporate motherhood, shareholders with competing priorities, and the struggle to make good choices great.

Blogosphere

"The hot new thing among the gut-trading, gunslingers of yore is to bring in quants and PhDs and data scientists and algos to address the lack of alpha that’s been competed out of the hedge fund game."

Trending

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Third-term Barack Obama. Al Bundy. Leslie Knope. Check out some other #BetterFictionalCandidates.

Chart Of The Day

• This company reported better-than-expected earnings for the second quarter on Wednesday and raised guidance.
• It has been the subject of activist investor activity in the past.
• This consumer goods company was established in 1980.

Click here for the answer.