The Market In 5 Minutes: Condoms, Rose, Condoms!

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

Asian stocks were mostly lower following reports that the U.S. Federal Reserve is said to be moving towards rate hikes this year.

Japan surprised the market and said its economy grew at an annualized 1.7 percent during the January to March period and grew by 0.4 percent on a quarterly basis. Analysts were expecting a mere 0.1 percent quarterly gain. Chinese stocks also fell to their lowest level in two months after President Xi Jinpig said that the country will proceed with plans to cut capacity at state-owned enterprises. China's Shanghai index fell 1.27 percent.

Oil prices dipped lower Wednesday morning as both Brent and WTI crude oil futures stayed below the $50 per barrel mark.

BZ News Desk Focus

Some of last night's and this morning's notable earnings:

Target TGT Reports Q1 Adj. EPS $1.29 vs $1.19 Est., Sales $16.2B vs $16.31B Est.
Staples SPLS Q1 EPS $0.17 vs $0.16 est, Revenue $5.1B vs $5.1B est
Lowe's LOW Q1 EPS $0.98 vs $0.85 est, Revenue $15.23B vs $14.87B est
Booz Allen Hamilton BAH Q4 EPS $0.41 vs $0.41 est, Revenue $1.42B vs $1.37B est

Find out what's going on in today's market and bring any questions you have to Benzinga's PreMarket Prep.

Sell-Side Themes

Citi downgraded Discovery Communications DISCA and Scripps Networks SNI, saying sports networks face the most acute risk.

Sell-Side's Most Noteworthy Calls

Goldman Sachs upgraded Tesla TSLA to Buy and sees 22 percent upside in the next six months.
Argus upgraded Exxon Mobil XOM to Buy.
JPMorgan downgraded Vipshop VIPS to Neutral.
Bank of America initiated coverage on Amicus Therapeutics FOLD at Buy.

Deal Talk

Church & Dwight CHD's Trojan condom business is rumored to be an acquisition target of Durex and Procter & Gamble PG. The stock saw some strange volatility in Tuesday's after-hours session and spiked up Wednesday morning.

Microsoft MSFT has reached an agreement to sell its entry-level feature phone assets to FIH Mobile, a subsidiary of Foxconn Technology Group and HMD Global, Oy for $350 million.

Buy-Side

"See, hedge funds aren't entirely based on performance," Bloomberg's Noah Smith writes. "Like most asset managers, they also earn management fees -- a slice of their investors’ total wealth that gets lopped off every year no matter how well the fund does."

In The News

Hillary Clinton is the apparent winner of the Kentucky Democratic primary Tuesday night and rival Sen. Bernie Sanders will win in Oregon.

Presumptive Republican nominee Donald Trump told Reuters he would be willing to talk to North Korean leader Kim Jong Un to try to stop Pyongyang's nuclear program. He also called for a renegotiation of the Paris climate accord and said he would dismantle most of the Dodd-Frank financial regulations if he's elected president.

Inside Murdoch's makeover National Geographic: Bloomberg reports it was HBO, not Discovery, that's the model for Rupert's sons.

Blogosphere

Does the auto industry's future lack a driver? Gadfly's David Flickling dives into the issue.

Riskalyze share the big trends in the assets going into and coming out of advisor portfolios every week. The underlying data is aggregated from hundreds of thousands of client accounts across the $120 billion and counting that advisors manage on the Riskalyze platform.

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