The Market In 5 Minutes: National Send A Nude Day?

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

Asian stocks were mostly higher even though the prospect of a Fed rate hike in June remains an ongoing concern. In addition, the Group of Seven finance ministers and central banks are scheduled to meet in Sendai, Japan on Friday and Saturday to discuss coordinated stimulus measures - a topic that is unlikely to be agreed on.

Oil prices also traded higher early Friday morning, with U.S. WTI crude futures trading at higher by $0.43 at $48.59 and approaching its previous seven-month high of $48.95.

BZ News Desk

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

Foot Locker FL Q1 EPS $1.39 vs $1.39 est, Revenue $1.99B vs $2.00B est
Deere DE Q2 EPS $1.56 vs $1.48 est, Revenue $7.11B vs $6.71B est
Gap GPS Reports Q1 EPS $0.32, Inline, Sales $3.44B vs $3.51B Est.
Autodesk ADSK Reports Q1 Adj. EPS $(0.10) vs $(0.14) Est., Sales $511.9M vs $513M Est.
Applied Materials AMAT Reports Q2 EPS $0.34 Vs Est $0.32, Sales $2.450M Vs Est $2.43B

Are you going to the Benzinga Fintech Awards on Tuesday? Grab your tickets now for the hottest gala in New York City! Some are calling it the "Oscars of Fintech."

Sell-Side Themes

Many analysts are casting doubt on the proposed Bayer-Monsanto MON takeover.

Jefferies says Kroger KR and Sprouts Farmers Markets SFM remain appealing, but suggests a lower entry point would be ideal for entry. Whole Foods WFM turnaround remains too early to call. Mark Wiltamuth also believes investors will not give Natural Grocers NVGC their due respect for robust store growth.

Sell-Side's Most Noteworthy Calls

Bank of America downgrades Teekay Tankers TNK to Underperform.
Stifel downgrades Gap to Hold.
Citi upgrades Lowe's LOW to Buy.
Morgan Stanley upgrades Urban Outfitters URBN to Overweight.
Standpoint starts coverage on Johnson & Johnson JNJ at Sell.
BB&T initiates coverage on Ralph Lauren RL at Buy.

Deal Talk

Shares of Yahoo YHOO tumbled 5 percent following a concerning report from The Wall Street Journal that the company's asset sale process may not be proceeding according to plans. potential bidders feel a price range of $2 billion to $3 billion is more appropriate.

In The News

Republican lawmakers narrowly defeated legislation to protect the civil rights of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender employees of government contractors. The measure, an amendment to a veterans and military construction spending bill introduced by New York Democrat Sean Maloney, initially had enough "yes" votes to pass, according to the count in the House chamber.

Tesla's TSLA production guidance of 500,000 units by 2018 has been well communicated to investors, while analysts aren't fully convinced the company's ambitious plans are possible. According to a report from Reuters, there — quite literally — may be just too many moving pieces for Tesla to put together to achieve its targets. Jeff Schuster of industry forecaster LMC Automotive told Reuters Tesla's production guidance is merely "implausible" given the fact that its battery factory in Nevada is still under construction.

A billion-dollar system in which charitable giving is profitable: Bloomberg looks into how big pharma uses charity programs to cover for drug price hikes.

Blogosphere

Facebook FB is biased. That’s true. But not in the way conservative critics say it is according to New York Times' Zeynep Tufekci.

The consensus is that the financial industry is hemorrhaging potential young talent to the tech sector primary because of work-life balance. Insiders: do you observe your firms taking actual steps to imminently improve employees' lives?

Trending

YHOO ZIOP AMAT ROST FL DE CPB CMCM BRCD IOC ADSK JNJ GPS OVAS LINE ADM [StockTwits]

#NationalSendANudeDay Umm... We'll let you take care of that.