Macro Focus
Futures for the Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped 46 points to 19,786.00, while the Standard & Poor’s 500 index futures fell
8 points to 2,264.50. Futures for the Nasdaq 100 index slipped 16.25 points to 5,045.00.
Oil prices traded higher as Brent crude futures gained 1.07 percent to trade at $56.46 per barrel, while US WTI crude futures
also rose 1.34 percent to trade at $53.86 a barrel
USA NY Empire State Manufacturing Index for Jan 6.50 vs 8.50 consensus estimate. The prior reading was 9.00.
- Federal Reserve Gov. Lael Brainard will speak in Washington, D.C. at 10:00 a.m. ET.
- The Treasury is set to auction 3-and 6-month bills at 11:30 a.m. ET.
- San Francisco Federal Reserve Bank President John C. Williams is set to speak at Sacramento State University in Calif. at
6:00 p.m. ET.
BZ News Desk Focus
-
Morgan Stanley (NYSE: MS) Q4 EPS $0.81 vs
$0.65 Est, Revenue $9.0B vs $8.5B Est.
-
UnitedHealth (NYSE: UNH) Q4 EPS $2.11 vs
$2.07 Est, Revenue $47.5B vs $47.3B Est
Q4 earnings season is underway, and among the many companies expected share their results this week are three transportation
giants. Expectations are somewhat mixed, based on the analysts' consensus forecasts, even as the Trump rally rolled on in the
period, with his promises of increased infrastructure spending. Modest results are expected from rail leader CSX
(NASDAQ: CSX), which during the period Barron's said could
benefit from Trump's election. Mixed results are anticipated from Union Pacific (NYSE: UNP), which disappointed in its most recent earnings report. United
Continental (NYSE: UAL) is expected to say that both
earnings and revenue slipped from a year ago. In the quarter, it came to light that Warren Buffett had taken stakes in United and
other airlines.
Sell-Side Themes
JPMorgan upgraded American Express (NYSE: AXP) and Michaels (NASDAQ: MIK) to Overweight and downgraded OneMain Holdings (NYSE: OMF) to Neutral.
Sell-Side's Most Noteworthy Calls
- UBS downgraded Twitter (NYSE: TWTR) to
Hold.
- Stifel downgraded Nordstrom (NYSE: JWN)
to Hold.
- JPMorgan downgraded Chipotle (NYSE: CMG)
to Neutral.
- Mizuho upgraded Netflix (NASDAQ: NFLX) to Buy.
- Goldman Sachs upgraded Disney (NYSE: DIS) to Buy.
Deal Talk
British American Tobacco (NYSE: BTI) and
Reynolds American (NYSE: RAI) said they had
agreed to a sweetened offer of $49.4 billion from BAT for the 57.8 percent of Reynolds that it doesn’t already own.
Essilor (OTC: ESLOY) and Delfin announced
Sunday the signing of an agreement under which the companies would merge with Luxottica (NYSE: LUX). Under the terms of the agreement, Delfin will contribute its entire stake
of approximately 62 percent in Luxottica to Essilor in return for newly-issued Essilor shares to be approved by the Essilor
shareholders meeting, on the basis of the Exchange Ratio of 0.461 Essilor shares for 1 Luxottica share.
Noble Energy (NYSE: NBL) and
Clayton Williams Energy (NYSE: CWEI)
announced Monday that the Boards of Directors of both companies have unanimously approved and the companies have executed a
definitive agreement under which Noble Energy will acquire all of the outstanding common stock of Clayton Williams Energy for $2.7
billion, or $139 per share in Noble Energy stock and cash. The deal is expected to close in Q2 of 2017.
In The News
Prime Minister Theresa May declared in a speech Tuesday that Britain doesn't want “partial membership” in the European Union “or
anything that leaves us half-in, half-out.”
President-elect Donald Trump criticized a cornerstone of House
Republicans’ corporate-tax plan, which they had pitched as an alternative to his proposed import tariffs, creating another point of
contention between the incoming president and congressional allies.
Blogosphere
Samsung shows constitutional monarchies can work: "The events
of the past few months have been a baleful reminder that, despite their antiquated nature, hereditary monarchies have advantages
over more meritocratic systems.No, we're not talking about anything going on in Washington -- it's Seoul that's putting ruling
houses in a good light."
Trending
SPY JNUG NFLX GLD NUGT DUST MS JDST UNH CMA SLV RAI
Two weeks after Donald Trump won the election, the Dow Jones Industrial Average, S&P 500 and NASDAQ all hit record highs.
With his official swear-in just a few days away, many are eager to see if the market will respond as positively. Recent history
may
justify pessimism.
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