The Market In 5 Minutes: Are You Ready For Q2 Earnings Season?

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.

Macros Focus

Oil prices rose in volatile trade Tuesday morning after the dollar slumped, but doubts over whether major producers can agree on curbing their output are keeping the market on edge. One analyst sees oil surplus continuing after key Doha talks between major producers next week.

"Hedge funds are close to calling it quits on the dollar’s best run in a generation," Bloomberg said. "Large speculators cut net bullish positions on the greenback to the lowest in almost two years last week... Currency options are signaling a less than one-in-four chance the greenback will extend its two-year, 25 percent surge against the euro in 2016, while against the yen the likelihood is less than one in 10."

A report by California-based a nonprofit research organization RAND Corporation says driverless cars can't be declared safe anytime soon. The report concluded autonomous vehicles would have to be driven hundreds of billions of miles to show that they're more reliable and safer than cars operated by humans.

BZ News Desk Focus

Do you use Alcoa AA as an indicator for the earnings season? 64 percent of our voters said no, while 16 percent said they used but no longer do.

Several companies updated their outlooks for the current quarter or year on Monday. Here are some of the main guidance cuts to get you caught up.

USA Export Prices month-over-month for March were 0.00 percent vs. -0.20 percent estimates. USA Import Prices for March were 0.20 percent vs. 1.00 percent estimates.

Sell-Side Themes

Credit Suisse weighed in on REITs, upgrading a few names in the space.

Going into a 'weak" Q1 earnings season, check out this earnings cheat sheet from Citi.

Sell-Side's Most Noteworthy Calls

Deutsche Bank downgraded Starbucks SBUX and expects shares to see only modest upside if the company is able to improve its current operations.

Goldman Sachs downgraded L Brands LB from Buy to Neutral and lowered the price target from $115 to $9, removing the stock from its Conviction Buy List.

Citi started Pandora P at Buy, sees it well-positioned now that Apple Radio Service is behind a paywall. The firm is positive on Pandora's on-demand offering.

Deal Talk

Verizon, Comcast, AT&T, CBS, IAC/InterActiveCorp, Daily Mail & General Trust, as well as Bain Capital Partners, KKR & Co. and TPG Capital are among those interested in acquiring Yahoo’s YHOO core business. Anyone else want to join the party?

"I don't want to sell Paramount," CBS CBS and Viacom VIAB Mogul Sumner Redstone has said repeatedly, according to people familiar with the matter

Buy-Side

United Continental UAL will likely comply with two hedge funds' request and add additional directors to its board, including an independent chairman, CNBC reported. An agreement with the funds, PAR Capital Management Inc and Altimeter Capital Management LP, may come within the next week.

What's Up In The News?

The Zika virus is "scarier" than first thought and its impact on the US could be greater than predicted, public health officials said. A wider range of birth defects has been linked to the virus, said Dr. Anne Schuchat of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and mosquitoes that carry the virus could travel to more U.S. states than previously thought. The current Zika outbreak began almost a year ago in Brazil.

With its weak currency and welcoming immigration policies, Canada has become a top destination for China’s 1 percenters. According to government figures, from 2005 to 2012, at least 37,000 Chinese millionaires took advantage of a now-defunct immigrant investor program to become permanent residents of British Columbia. This metropolitan area of 2.3 million is increasingly home to Chinese immigrants, who made up more than 18 percent of the population in 2011, up from less than 7 percent in 1981.

Duane "Dewey" Clarridge, a CIA operative and official of dash, daring and swagger who helped establish and headed the agency’s counterterrorism center and also was known for his connection to the Iran-contra affair of the 1980s, died April 9. He was 83.

Blogosphere

State and federal officials said on Monday that Goldman Sachs would pay $5.1 billion to settle accusations of wrongdoing before the financial crisis. However, the New York Times points out that the final payment could be far less.

"Western Media and political institutions tend to describe China and Russia as something of an anti-Western bloc," Peter Marion writes. "More autocratic than Western governments — and more skeptical of open institutions and a free press — China and Russia often side with each other in international disputes against European and American interests. While this characterization isn’t entirely wrong, it overlooks the competition and suspicion between Moscow and Beijing."

This thread about a husband and father shedding his $68,000 debt in just under three years has an interesting conversation going on about it.

Trending

DUST NFLX SBUX NUGT AA GDX JNPR SLV HZNP MRO SCTY SWN [StockTwits]

#EqualPayDay is starting to make the rounds. This date symbolizes how far into the year women must work to earn what men earned in the previous year.

Quote Of The Day

"The system is rigged, it's crooked."

Republican presidential front-runner Donald Trump lashed out at the party's delegate selection rules after rival Ted Cruz swept all of Colorado's 34 delegates over the weekend. The New York billionaire said the process was set up to protect party insiders and shut out insurgent candidates.