The Market In 5 Minutes: Draghi, iPhones And Warriors

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

Asian stocks were mostly mixed on Thursday with a notable exception: Japan. The Nikkei index lost 2.32 percent, its worst daily decline in a month, after the country's Prime Minister Shinzo Abe officially moved a planned sales tax hike forward by two years. This is raising concerns of a credit rating downgrade and the sustainability of the country's public debt, which exceeds 200 percent of its GDP.

European stocks were mostly higher with less than four hours of trading remaining. The European Central Bank met in Vienna and ECB President Mario Draghi announced that rates will remain unchanged.

Oil prices were trading flat as representatives from OPEC nations also gathered in Vienna. Early reports indicate Iran still has no intention of agreeing to any cutback in output as the country looks to regain market share it lost during years of economic sanctions.

"An output ceiling has no benefit to us," CNBC quoted Iranian Oil Minister Bijan Zanganeh as saying.

BZ News Desk

ADP Employment Change for May 173K vs 175K Economist Est., vs. 156K in April.

USA Initial Jobless Claims for May 27 267.0K vs 270.0K consensus estimate. The prior reading was 268.0K.

Some of last night's and this morning's notable earnings:

Box BOX Reports Q1 EPS $(0.18) Vs Est $(0.24), Sales $90M Vs Est $88.65M
Analogic ALOG Reports Q3 Adj. EPS $0.80 vs $0.88 Est., Sales $128M vs $127.3M Est.
Joy Global JOY Q2 EPS $0.09 vs $0.00 est, Revenue $602.0M vs $607.7M est
Ciena CIEN Reports Q2 Adj. EPS $0.34 vs $0.27 Est., Sales $640.7M vs $630.7M Est.

Sell-Side Themes

Raymond James started coverage across the solar sector.

Demandware DWRE saw multiple downgrades after reporting earnings last night.

Sell-Side's Most Noteworthy Calls

Goldman Sachs cut Apple's AAPL price target by 9 percent to $124 citing iPhone growth slowdown.

Bank of America downgraded Exxon Mobil XOM to Neutral.

Sterne Agee CRT downgraded EMC EMC to Neutral.

Wells Fargo upgraded Sally Beauty SBH to Market Perform.

Goldman Sachs initiated coverage on Nvidia NVDA at Buy.

Deal Talk

Johnson & Johnson JNJ announced its acquisition of Vogue International for $3.3 billion.

Qlik QLIK reports deal to be purchased by Thoma Bravo for $30.50 per share.

In The News

Musk offered his Apple Car prediction to Walt Mossberg and Kara Swisher at the Code Conference, where he claimed that Apple's ambitions, while admirable, were falling behind in a fast-paced industry: "I think it's great they're doing this, and I hope it works out. It's just a missed opportunity. It's a couple years... they'll make a good car and be successful."

Chile’s solar industry has expanded so quickly that it’s giving electricity away for free. Spot prices reached zero in parts of the country on 113 days through April. While that may be good for consumers, it’s bad news for companies that own power plants struggling to generate revenue and developers seeking financing for new facilities.

Logged off? Global internet and smartphone user growth are slowing dramatically, but at least things are looking up in India, according to Mary Meeker's influential report.

Blogosphere

Uber and Saudi Arabia are two very different things, but Chris Bryant says they actually have something in common.

The Irrelevant investor: "Over the long-term, emotional intelligence will have a much bigger impact on your returns than your ability to out-think the market."

You have to make a $10,000 bet with 25 year time horizon. What do you pick? Check out the answers in this thread.

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