The Market In 5 Minutes: GM And Gap Earnings, Retail Sales Data

Macro Focus

Futures for the Dow Jones Industrial Average climbed 70 points to 20,039.00, while the Standard & Poor’s 500 index futures rose 7 points to 2,293.00. Futures for the Nasdaq 100 index surged 13.75 points to 5,170.75.

Oil prices traded lower as Brent crude futures declined 0.23 percent to trade at $55.59 per barrel, while US WTI crude futures fell 0.26 percent to trade at $52.87 a barrel.

Redbook: US Retail Sales First Week Feb +0.7% YoY, Up 0.3% MoM

• The Labor Department's JOLTS report for December is scheduled for release at 10:00 a.m. ET.
• The Treasury is set to auction 4-week bills at 11:30 a.m. ET.
• The Treasury will also auction 3-year notes at 1:00 p.m. ET.
• Data on consumer credit for December will be released at 3:00 p.m. ET.

BZ News Desk Focus

• General Motors GM Reports Q4 EPS $1.28 vs. Est. $1.17, Rev. $43.9BB vs. Est. $41.5B
• 21st Century Fox FOXA Reports Q2 EPS $0.53 vs. Est. $0.49, Rev. $7.68B vs. Est. $7.72B
• Gap GPS Reports Q4 EPS $0.50 vs. Est. $0.45, Rev. $4.43B vs. Est. $4.4B
• Michael Kors KORS Q3 EPS $1.64 vs $1.63 Est, Revenue $1.35B vs $1.36B Est
• Cardinal Health CAH Reports Q2 Adj. EPS $1.34 vs $1.23 Est., Sales $33.1B vs $33.6B Est.
• Archer Daniels Midland ADM Reports Q4 EPS $0.75 vs. Est. $0.77, Rev. $16.5M vs. Est. $16.49B

Sell-Side Themes

Sysco SYY received a couple of upgrades from Credit Suisse (Outperform) and JPMorgan (Overweight).

Bernstein initiated coverage on several retail names, with Dollar General DG and Target TGT getting Outperform ratings.

Sell-Side's Most Noteworthy Calls

• HSBC downgraded Tiffany TIF to Hold.
• Citi upgraded Biogen BIIB to Buy.
• BTIG upgraded Check Point Software CHKP to Buy.
• Barclays upgrade Caterpillar CAT to Overweight.

Deal Talk

Shares of Fidelity & Guaranty FGL spiked higher on an unconfirmed report that there may be potential buyers for the insurer, other than China's Anbang. In 2015, Anbang offered $26.80 per share for FGL, but the deal has run into regulatory issues.

Toshiba wants investment funds including Bain Capital to buy a stake in its flash memory business rather than industry peers such as Micron Technology Inc because doing so will speed up the planned sale, a source said. Micron, SK Hynix and Toshiba's current memory partner Western Digital have submitted initial bids for a stake that Toshiba says will be less than 20 percent of its NAND flash unit, two other sources familiar with the bidding told Reuters.

In The News

The Senate is expected to vote Tuesday on whether to confirm Betsy DeVos as education secretary, concluding an unusually fiery debate that has left her at risk of becoming the first cabinet nominee in 28 years to be rejected.

The Trump administration argued the president has broad authority to decide who can and can’t enter the U.S. and that preventing him from doing so puts national security at risk, as it sought to persuade an appeals court to reinstate a travel ban.

Blogosphere

Tom Brady, with tears running down his face, basked in the spotlight after taking his team on a historic comeback in Super Bowol LI. He cemented himself as perhaps the greatest to ever play the game. Interestingly, Brady’s career runs parallel with that of a slightly different athlete: WWE Superstar John Cena, another of Boston’s most accomplished sons.

For the big trends in the assets going into and coming out of advisor portfolios every week, Josh Brown says, "it's interesting to see the MSCI All-Country World Index ETF make the top winners list this week while advisors were selling off FTSE Europe simultaneously. My best guess is it’s not an overlapping group executing these trades."

Trending

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