The Market In 5 Minutes: Twitter Tanks, Trump Tweets, Tesla Preps

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 33 points to 20,035.00, while the Standard & Poor’s 500 index futures rose 4.50 points to 2,294.50. Futures for the Nasdaq 100 index gained 6 points to 5,197.00.

Oil prices traded higher as Brent crude futures gained 0.60 percent to trade at $55.45 per barrel, while US WTI crude futures rose 0.63 percent to trade at $52.67 a barrel.

Initial Jobless Claims for Feb 3 234.0K vs 250.0K estimate. Continuing Claims for Jan 27 2.08M vs 2.06M estimate.

• St. Louis Federal Reserve Bank President Bullard is set to speak in St. Louis, MO. at 9:10 a.m. ET.
• Data on wholesale inventories for December will be released at 10:00 a.m. ET.
• The Energy Information Administration’s weekly report on natural gas stocks is schedule for release 10:30 a.m. ET.
• The Treasury will auction 30-year bonds at 1:00 p.m. ET.
• Chicago Federal Reserve Bank President Charles Evans will speak in Chicago, Ill. at 1:10 p.m. ET.
• Data on money supply for the recent week will be released at 4:30 p.m. ET.

BZ News Desk Focus

• Twitter TWTR Reports Q4 Adj. EPS $0.16 vs $0.12 Est., Sales $717M vs $740M Est.
• Coca-Cola KO Reports Q4 Adj. EPS $0.37, Inline, Sales $9.4B vs $9.13B Est.
• Yum Brands YUM Reports Q4 Adj. EPS $0.79 vs $0.74 Est., Sales $2.024B vs $2.09B Est., Comps Up 1%
• Viacom VIAB Reports Q1 Adj. EPS $1.04 vs $1.18 in Same Qtr. Last Year, Sales $3.324B vs $3.18B Est.
• Whole Foods Market WFM Reports Q1 EPS $0.30 vs. Est. $0.39, Rev. $4.9B vs. Est. $4.98B
• Reynolds American RAI Reports Q4 Adj. EPS $0.62 vs $0.60 Est., Sales $3.186B vs $3.16B Est.

Sell-Side's Most Noteworthy Calls

• Mizuho downgraded GrubHub GRUB to Neutral.
• Longbow downgraded Panera Bread PNRA to Neutral.
• KeyBanc upgraded Autoliv ALV to Overweight.
• JPMorgan upgraded Rambus RMBS to Overweight.
• Leerink initiated Spark Therapeutics ONCE at Outperform with an $85 target.

Deal Talk

U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia blocked the proposed $54 billion merger between Cigna CI and Anthem ANTM, saying the merger was likely to raises prices.

Tesaro TSRO is talking to investment banks, including Citigroup, after receiving takeover interest from several pharma companies, according to sources as reported by Reuters. The sources, however, said Tesaro isn't actively exploring a sale. Tesaro closed Wednesday at $182.68, up 12.11 percent.

Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund is considering making an investment in Six Flags Entertainment SIX, according to sources as reported by Bloomberg. The PIF is said to be in talks with Six Flags regarding a potential stake. Six Flags began talks last June with government of Saudi Arabia to pursue development of Six Flags-branded theme parks in that market.

In The News

Supreme Court nominee Neil Gorsuch called President Trump’s recent attacks on the judiciary "demoralizing and disheartening" in a closed-door meeting with Sen. Richard Blumenthal, the senator said. U.S. aviation leaders are set to meet Trump amid disagreement over terms granted to some foreign carriers and uncertainty over the travel ban on citizens of seven nations.

Trump took to his personal Twitter account and tweeted, "My daughter Ivanka has been treated so unfairly by Nordstrom. She is a great person -- always pushing me to do the right thing! Terrible!" Shares of Nordstrom JWN initially spiked lower following the tweet, but closed the day up more than 2 percent.

According to Reuters, Tesla TSLA said it will undergo a "brief" and "planned" pause in its California assembly plant for one week this month to prepare the factory for the high-volume Model 3 sedan.

Blogosphere

Shipping's Long, Slow Turn: "Turning round a big ship is such a difficult task that it's long been a metaphor for reversing processes driven by their own near-unstoppable momentum.It's a decent way of describing the problems of the container-shipping industry in recent years. Warnings about overcapacity date back almost a decade, yet even with a slowdown in trade, the global box fleet just kept growing and growing and growing."

Trending

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