The Market In 5 Minutes: Indexes Remain In Tight Range As Rio Olympics Come To An End

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 markets were little changed last week, with all three major averages finishing with minimal losses over the five-day period. 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.

“Notable weakness in the utility sector and high-paying dividend sector was offset by mostly better-than-expected earnings in the retail sector,” said Joel Elconin, co-host of Benzinga's PreMarket Prep.

On Monday morning, oil prices traded lower as Brent crude futures declined 3.03 percent to trade at $49.34 per barrel, while US WTI crude futures also fell 2.7 percent to trade at $47.79 a barrel.

BZ News Desk Focus

Many retailers have had their moment in the earnings spotlight in the past week or so, and overall results have been mixed, along with investor and analyst reaction. Disappointing results have been blamed on everything from Amazon AMZN to the weather.

There is more to come, even as the retail earnings parade begins to wind down, including this week's scheduled reports from specialty retailers Best Buy BBY and GameStop GME. As with a number of other retailers expected to share their results this week, consensus forecasts call for shrinking earnings.

Sell-Side Themes

Kadmon Holdings KDMN, a biopharma company, was initiated by several firms mostly with a bullish outlook.

Sell-Side's Most Noteworthy Calls

Stifel downgraded Relypsa RLYP to Hold.
Goldman Sachs downgraded Urban Outfitters URBN to Neutral.
Credit Suisse upgraded Hormel Foods HRL to Outperform.
Kepler Cheuvreux upgraded Anheuser Busch BUD to Buy.
Citi started Steel Dynamics STLD at Buy.

Deal Talk

Pfizer PFE will buy Medivation MDVN for $14 billion, a move that would add one of the crown jewels of the multibillion-dollar market for cancer drugs to Pfizer’s portfolio. The all-cash deal ends months of bidding for San Francisco’s Medivation, one of the most desired independent biotech companies because it sells a leading prostate-cancer drug.

Lyft has approached several major potential buyers, according to sources as reported by the New York Times on Friday. The companies approached by Lyft included General Motors GM, Apple AAPL, Google GOOGL, Amazon and rivals Uber and Didi Chuxing, the sources said. Talks with GM were said the be the most serious, although the nation's largest automaker never made a formal bid.

In The News

The Rio Olympics ended with a spectacular carnival-inspired closing ceremony, and the official handover to 2020 hosts Tokyo. The colourful ceremony, lasting almost three hours, celebrated Brazil's arts and was held in a wet Maracana. Among the highlights were Tokyo's impressive showcase and a vibrant carnival parade.

The United States led all countries with 121 medals, 46 of which were gold medals; Great Britain was second with 67 total and 27 gold medals.

President Barack Obama’s troubled Pacific-region trade deal is threatening to become a foreign policy failure in Asia, where the U.S. loaded the accord with strategic significance as a counterweight to the rise of China.

Blogosphere

"People are wondering what a Hillary or Trump presidency might mean for their money," says the Irrelevant Investor. "Volatility will pick up, but it won’t have anything to do with the election. The VIX is currently lower than 93% of all days going back to 1990. Stocks also aren’t moving very much right now; it’s been 29 days since the S&P 500 moved 1%."

Trending

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Randy Orton received 10 staples to close a laceration on his forehead following the brutal assault by Brock Lesnar that resulted in a TKO at WWE's WWE 29th annual #SummerSlam. The four-hour show crowned a new Universal Champion for the Monday Night Raw brand. It also featured former "Daily Show" host Jon Stewart in a humorous in-ring segment.