The Market In 5 Minutes: More Twitter Rumors, Disappointing Employment Data

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

Futures for the Dow Jones Industrial Average declined 15 points to 18,075.00, while the Standard & Poor’s 500 index futures slipped 0.75 points to 2,144.00. Futures for the Nasdaq 100 index fell 0.50 points to 4,857.00.

Oil prices traded higher as Brent crude futures gained 1.81 percent to trade at $51.79 per barrel, while US WTI crude futures also rose 1.68 percent to trade at $49.51 a barrel.

USA ADP Employment Change for Sep 154.0K vs 166.0K consensus estimate. The prior reading was 177.0K.

• Minneapolis Federal Reserve Bank President Neel Kashkari will speak in Indian Country conference in Minneapolis at 9:30 a.m. ET.
• US Services Purchasing Managers' Index for September is schedule for release at 9:45 a.m. ET.
• Data on factory orders for August will be released at 10:00 a.m. ET.
• The ISM non-manufacturing index for September is schedule for release at 10:00 a.m. ET.
• The Energy Information Administration’s weekly report on petroleum inventories will be released at 10:30 a.m. ET.
• Richmond Federal Reserve Bank President Jeffrey Lacker is set to speak in Huntington, West Virginia at 1:00 p.m. ET.
• Richmond Fed President Jeffrey M. Lacker will speak at Marshall University in Huntington, West Virginia at 5:00 p.m. ET.

BZ News Desk Focus

• Micron (NASDAQ: MU) Reports Q4 EPS $(0.05), Rev. $3.22B
• AngioDynamics (NASDAQ: ANGO) Reports Q1 Adj. EPS $0.17 vs $0.11 in Same Qtr. Last Year, Sales $88.1M
• AZZ (NYE:AZZ) Reports Q2 EPS $.38 vs $0.67 in Same Qtr. Last Year, Sales $195M
• 8-K from Salesforce (NYSE: CRM) Shows Reaffirmed Expectation for FY17 Sales $8.275B-$8.325B vs $8.31B Est.

Sell-Side Themes

DA Davidson initiated coverage on Flowers Food (NYSE: FLO), Freshpet (NASDAQ: FRPT) and Sanderson Farms (NASDAQ: SAFM) at Neutral.

Raymond James and DA Davidson downgraded Gigamon (NYSE: GIMO).

Sell-Side's Most Noteworthy Calls

• UBS downgraded Norwegian Cruise (NASDAQ: NCLH) to Neutral.
• JPMorgan downgraded United Breweries to Underweight.
• Stifel upgraded Jones Energy (NYSE: JONE) to Buy.
• RBC upgraded UBS (NYSE: UBS) to Sector Perform.
• Loop Capital started Netflix (NASDAQ: NFLX) at Buy.
• Atlantic Equities started Alliance Data (NYSE: ADS) at Overweight.

Deal Talk

Wall Street Journal reports that Twitter (NYSE: TWTR) will expect bids from Salesforce, and potentially Google (NASDAQ: GOOG) and Disney (NYSE: DIS) this week.

However, sources familiar with the matter told Benzinga that Salesforce's largest holder, Fidelity Management, said it wouldn't be happy if Salesforce was to purchase Twitter. Fidelity believes that such a deal isn't in the best interest of shareholders.

Sears (NASDAQ: SHLD) spiked following a report that Stanley Black & Decker (NYSE: SWK), Techtronic Industries, Apex Tool Group and Sweden’s Husqvarna AB have shown interest in acquiring the retailer's Craftsman division, according to a report from Bloomberg. The unit could be valued at approximately $2 billion, according to sources.

In The News

BlackRock (NYSE: BLK) is cutting fees at more than a dozen ETFs, another sign of how a federal overhaul of retirement-savings rules is transforming parts of the financial-services industry.

We learned more about Google's upcoming smartphone, the Pixel, Google Assistant, some new Smart Home hardware options, and their soon-to-be-released virtual reality headset, the DayDream View VR. Click here and here to read more.

Blogosphere

"All of the great investors, from Seth Klarman and Howard Marks to Warren Buffett and Phil Fisher, have one thing in common," says Michael Batnick, "their ability to clearly communicate their philosophy. "

Trending

MU ACIA CRM JNUG CRBP StZ WLL NUGT NTNX GOOG SHLD SNE

Vice-presidential nominees Republican Mike Pence and Democrat Tim Kaine offered sharply different visions, casting the other party’s presidential nominee as an unacceptable choice in a time of peril. #VPdebate

Guess This Chart

• This company was rumored to have received a bid from Microsoft in May, and is currently involved in takeover chatter of another tech company.
• It's currently in the middle of its large annual conference.
• Sympathy plays include Microsoft, Oracle and Adobe Systems.

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