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 mostly unchanged on Thursday. The Dow recorded a small loss while the S&P and Nasdaq closed the
session with small gains. Wall Street was gearing up for a mildly positive trading day on Friday, with stock futures tilting
higher.
Oil prices traded higher as Brent crude futures declined 0.81 percent to trade at $43.93 per barrel, while US WTI crude futures
also fell 0.69 percent to trade at $41.62 a barrel.
Nonfarm Payrolls for Jul 255.0K vs 180.0K consensus estimate. USA Private Payrolls for Jul 217.0K vs 170.0K Est.
The Baker Hughes North American rig count for the latest week is schedule for release at 1:00 p.m. ET.
Data on consumer credit for June will be released at 3:00 p.m. ET.
BZ News Desk Focus
FireEye (NASDAQ: FEYE) Reports Q2 Adj.
EPS $(0.33) vs $(0.39) Est., Sales $175M vs $181.7M Est.
Priceline (NASDAQ: PCLN) Reports Q2 Adj.
EPS $13.90 vs. Est. $12.69, Rev. $ 2.56B vs. Est. $2.58B.
TASER (NASDAQ: TASR) Reports Q2 EPS
$0.07 vs $0.04 Est, Sales $58.8M vs $54.42M Est.
Activision-Blizzard (NASDAQ: ATVI)
Reports Q2 Adj. EPS $0.45 vs $0.42 Est., Sales $1.57B vs $1.46B Est.
Take-Two (NASDAQ: TTWO) Reports Q1 Adj.
EPS $(0.21) vs $(0.29) Est., Sales $311.6M vs $259.4M Est.
Cognizant (NASDAQ: CTSH) Reports Q2 Adj.
EPS $0.87 vs $0.82 Est., Sales $3.37B, Inline; Adds $1B to Buyback Plan
Bristol-Myers (NYSE: BMY) traded down 20
percent after Opdivo did not meet its primary endpoint. Competitor Merck (NYSE: MRK) spiked up on the news.
Sell-Sides Most Noteworthy Calls
Baird downgraded Regeneron (NASDAQ: REGN) to Neutral.
Deutsche Bank downgraded Tripadvisor (NASDAQTRIP) to Hold.
Jefferies upgraded U.S. Steel (NYSE: X) to
Hold.
Telsey upgraded Coach (NYSE: COH) to
Outperform.
Longbow started coverage on La-Z-Boy (NYSE: LZB) at neutral.
SunTrust started coverage on Clovis (NASDAQ: CLVS) at Buy.
Deal Talk
Dow Chemical (NYSE: DOW) and
DuPont (NYSE: DD) were volatile Thursday
following a report from MLex that the EU could launch an investigation into the merger of the two companies and had declined to
approve the concessions made to secure approval. Dow and Dupont announced their $130 billion merger in December.
Rackspace (NYSE: RAX) is near a deal to be
acquired by a private-equity firm, according to sources as reported by the Wall Street Journal. The sources said a deal could be
reached as early as this week. Rackspace announced in May 2014 it had hired Morgan Stanley to assist in exploring strategic
alternatives. The company has been the subject of frequent takeover rumors and has struggled to compete against
Amazon Web Services (NASDAQ: AMZN).
In The News
A raft of new national and battleground-state polls released Thursday found Donald Trump slipping well behind Hillary Clinton
one week after the end of the Democratic convention, and as the Republican nominee reels from a public feud with the parents of a
slain Muslim American soldier. New polls show Trump falling 9 to 11 points.
Quarter after quarter, about 75 percent of companies in the S&P 500 index meet or exceed analysts’ earnings forecasts, a
statistic that has held up in good times and bad. One reason for such consistently impressive results is that some companies
quietly nudge
analysts’ numbers, almost always lower.
Blogosphere
How I
became a morning person: "You look at your messages, the news, and the weather. 'I’m half asleep,' you think. 'I’ll just look
at Twitter while I wake up.' Ten minutes pass, then another five. You’re not asleep, but you’re not really awake either."
Trending
FEYE CRC ATVI SEAS EWZ LOCO HDP SYMC CTSH FSLR CIO MSI APA KHC WING
The 2016 Olympic Games officially start in Rio on Friday with the opening ceremony at the Maracana Stadium. Athletes from 206
nations and a refugee team are in Brazil to compete in 28 sports and be watched by a global audience of billions.
Chart Of The Day
- A Recode article in April asked if this company had "The only good social network."
- It hit an all-time high of $86.97 in May 2011.
- This stock got a significant celebrity endorsement in mid-October.
Click here for the
answer.
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