The Market In 5 Minutes: Feeling The Burn (But Maybe Not In Your Nikes Anymore)

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 lower, partially in reaction to poor data out of China. China's government reported the country's official May manufacturing Purchasing Managers' Index (PMI) was unchanged at 50.1 from a month ago. A reading above 50 is considered to be a sign of economic expansion. The Caixin manufacturing PMI index fell to 49.2 in May from 49.4 in April and also marked the lowest reading since February.

In other Asian news, Japan's Prime Minister Shinzo Abe is expected to announce a proposed sales tax hike will take place in 2019 as opposed to 2017. However, initial reaction to the announcement wasn't necessarily positive.

The price of oil also traded lower on Wednesday as the upcoming OPEC meeting will likely focus on how the countries can defend their market share rather than increasing the price of the commodity through production cuts. Brent crude futures were trading lower by $0.84 a barrel at $49.05, while US WTI Crude futures were lower by $0.75 a barrel at $48.36.

BZ News Desk Focus

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

Michael Kors KORS Q4 EPS $0.98 vs $0.97 est, Revenue $1.2B vs $1.2B est
Tivo TIVO Reports Q1 EPS $0.04 Vs Est $0.08, Sales $107.3M Vs Est $114.7M
Workday WDAY Reports Q1 EPS $0.05 vs. Est. $(0.02), Rev. $345.4M vs. Est. $338.6M
Vera Bradley VRA Reports Q1 EPS $0.06 vs. Est. $0.05, Rev. $105.2M vs. Est. $106.7M

Sell-Side Themes

Bak of America and Morgan Stanley both downgraded Nike NKE, as they see the long-time sports apparel king losing market share, particularly to companies like Under Armour UA.

Sell-Side's Most Noteworthy Calls

Mizuho upgraded Relypsa RLYP to Neutral.

Goldman Sachs upgraded Costco COST to Buy.

Credit Suisse upgrades Whole Foods WFM to outperform.

BTIG downgraded Celgene CELG to Neutral.

MKM downgraded Tivo TIVO to Neutral.

Stephens initiated Brinker EAT at Equal-Weight.

Deal Talk

Salesforce CRM will acquire Demandware DWRE for $75 per share in cash. The deal is valued at $2.8 billion.

Wendy's WEN franchisee in Japan, Wendy's Japan, has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire 100 percent of the equity of First Kitchen Ltd. from Suntory Holdings Ltd. The closing of the deal, which involves 136 restaurants, is anticipated at the end of June.

Alibaba BABA agreed to a $2 billion share purchase from SoftBank Group.

In The News

Tesla TSLA held its annual shareholder’s meeting on Tuesday and the event was partly a trip down memory lane, partly a confessional of early missteps, and partly a series of thank you’s to partners and employees that helped build Tesla over its 13-year history.

Community bankers are struggling under new regulations, but they also are in their best shape in years. Wall Street Journal wonders why they aren't doing better.

Undergraduates were less likely to be employed and earned smaller paychecks, largely due to high dropout rates, a new study found.

Blogosphere

How long before North Korea can nuke a U.S. city? Reuters' Peter Apps takes a look.

Should banks get down on their knees and pray for regulation? See what the Reformed Broker Josh Brown has to say.

"About 21 percent of the world's 1.9 billion smartphone users have installed an ad blocker, a level that has nearly doubled in the past year," writes Gadfly's Leila Abboud. "It's most popular in China, India, Pakistan and Indonesia, where many people access the web primarily on their phones and not on computers but is poised to spread to the U.S. and Europe as well."

-

-

-

-

-

-

-

-

-

-

-

-

-

-