The Market In 5 Minutes: Up And Down Week Comes To A Close

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

The U.S. stock market was little changed on Thursday, although all three major averages did finish in positive territory. Despite the fact that stocks are sitting near all-time highs, day-to-day trading has been mostly quiet in recent weeks as much of Wall Street is on vacation. Stocks were set to open lower on Friday.

Volume was light on Thursday as much of Wall Street remains on vacation.

Oil prices traded lower as Brent crude futures declined 0.28 percent to trade at $50.75 per barrel, while US WTI crude futures also fell 0.15 percent to trade at $48.15 a barrel.

BZ News Desk Focus

Gap GPS Reports Q2 Adj. EPS $0.60 vs $0.59 Est., Sales $3.85B vs $3.79B Est.
Foot Locker FL Reports Q2 EPS $0.94 vs $0.90 Est., Sales $1.78B vs $1.76B Est.
Ross Stores ROST Reports Q2 EPS $0.71 vs. Est. $0.67, Rev. $3.18B vs. Est. $3.13B
Applied Materials AMAT Reports Q3 Adj. EPS $0.50 vs $0.48 Est., Sales $2.821B vs $2.84B Est.
Hibbett Sports HIBB Reports Q2 EPS $0.29 vs $0.27 Est., Sales $206.9M vs $209M Est.
Estee Lauder EL Reports Q4 Adj. EPS $0.43 vs $0.40 Est., Sales $2.65B vs $2.66B Est.
Deere DE Reports Q3 EPS $1.55 vs 1.53 in Same Qtr. Last Year, Sales $6.724B vs $6.09B Est.

The U.S. Department of Justice announced it would be gradually moving away from the use of private prisons. The GEO Group GEO and Corrections Corp Of America CXW that own private prisons with government contracts took a large blow on Thursday. But was it an overreaction?

Sell-Side Themes

KeyBanc downgraded U.S. Steel X and AK Steel AKS to Underweight.

Sell-Side's Most Noteworthy Calls

Longbow downgraded Buffalo Wild Wings BWLD to Underperform.
Cowen downgraded Canadian Solar CSIQ to Market Perform.
Raymond James upgraded Angie's List ANGI to Outperform.
Mizuho upgraded Allergan AGN to Buy.

Deal Talk

Dell has received clearance from Chinese regulatory authorities to complete the biggest tech deal ever — its $63 billion acquisition of EMC EMC — a source with direct knowledge of the situation told The New York Post.

InterOil IOC issued a release outlining value created by ExxonMobil's XOM offer. InterOil told shareholders to vote FOR an ExxonMobil deal.

Shares of Illiumima ILMN surged on Thursday, following a report from Street Insider that Thermo Fisher TMO could bid $30 billion, according to sources. Multiple analysts were doubtful such a deal could take pace. Benzinga first reported the sale chatter in Illumina earlier on Wednesday. Illumina declined comment on the report.

In The News

The four U.S. Olympic swimmers who claimed they were victims of an armed robbery in Rio were actually the ones causing trouble that night, and they fabricated their account of the incident, Rio's police chief said Thursday. Although officials did admit that local security guards pulled a gun on Ryan Lochte and his fellow swimmers and extracted about $50 in cash from them. The U.S. Olympic Committee apologized to Brazil for the swimmers' behavior Thursday night, calling the incident a "distracting ordeal in the midst of what should rightly be a celebration of excellence."

Former President Bill Clinton and his daughter, Chelsea, plan to stop raising money for the Clinton Foundation and turn over operations to independent parties if Hillary Clinton is elected president.

Viacom VIAB CEO Philippe Dauman would relinquish his position as part of a settlement the company is completing with Sumner Redstone’s National Amusements Inc., people familiar with the situation told Wall Street Journal, a deal that would end a leadership crisis that has engulfed the media giant. Under terms of the deal being negotiated, the two sides would cease litigation over control of Viacom and National Amusements. Viacom COO Tom Dooley would be named interim CEO through September under the deal and is a top candidate for the permanent CEO job.

Blogosphere

"Genuine question. I work in retirement and other than the passive argument I constantly get fought on this: Why shouldn't I put my money into index funds?"

Trending

UWTI DWTI MBLY CSIQ AMAT CXW GEO SGY RRC LB SPWH REN FL

Usain Bolt won the men's 200m to claim his second #Rio2016 gold, his eighth at an Olympics, and keep alive his hopes of an unprecedented "treble treble."