The Market In 5 Minutes: Apple Helps Lead Stocks Higher

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

Wall Street was set for a volatile open on Thursday, with futures struggling for direction ahead of a raft of data that could influence the case for the Federal Reserve to raise interest rates. Apple AAPL hit a new 2016 high on Wednesday, giving a boost ot the overall market.

Futures for the Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 73 points to 17,993.00, while the Standard & Poor’s 500 index futures gained 8.75 points to 2,122.00. Futures for the Nasdaq 100 index rose 18 points to 4,746.75.

Oil prices traded higher as Brent crude futures rose 1.26 percent to trade at $46.43 per barrel, while US WTI crude futures also rose 1.02 percent to trade at $44.60 a barrel.

The Bank of England held its benchmark rate at 0.25 percent, but telegraphed that it still expects to cut it again later this year if the UK economy weakens as officials expect.

USA Initial Jobless Claims for Sep 9 260.0K vs 265.0K consensus estimate. The prior reading was 259.0K.

• Data on industrial production for August will be released at 9:15 a.m. ET.
• Data on business inventories for July will be released at 10:00 a.m. ET.
• The Energy Information Administration’s weekly report on natural gas stocks is schedule for release at 10:30 a.m. ET.
• Data on money supply for the latest week will be released at 4:30 p.m. ET.

BZ News Desk Focus

• Apigee APIC Reports Q4 Loss/Share $0.32 vs Est Loss/Share $0.27, Rev $92M
• Star Bulk Carriers SBLK Reports Q2 EPS $(0.75) vs $(0.66) Est., Sales $52.6M vs $41.3M Est.
• Aspen Group ASPU Reports Q1 Adj. EBITDA 238K vs. Prior Year Quarter $(299K), Rev. $2.75M vs. Prior Year Quarter $1.7M

Wall Street expects Oracle ORCL to post quarterly earnings at $0.58 per share on revenue of $8.70 billion after the closing bell.

Sell-Side Themes

Sell-Side's Most Noteworthy Calls

• Gabelli downgraded Penske Automotive PAG to Hold.
• Bank of America downgraded VF Corp VFC to Underperform.
• Oppenheimer upgraded Dicks Sporting Goods DKS to Outperform.
• Goldman Sachs upgraded Seattle Genetics SGEN to Neutral.
• Craig-Hallum started PayPal PYPL at Buy.
• Guggenheim started Symantec SYMC at Buy.

Deal Talk

McDonald's MCD has received final bids from at least three groups for its China and Hong Kong outlets, with global private equity firms Carlyle Group (CG.O) and TPG Capital separately teaming up with Chinese partners for the business worth up to $3 billion, sources told Reuters.

Responding to rumors and a Wall Street Journal report concerning Apple's supposed interest in acquiring rival streaming music service Tidal, Apple executive Jimmy Iovine said the company is not currently pursuing such plans.

In The News

Hillary Clinton’s campaign on Wednesday released additional medical information about the Democratic presidential nominee, as the health and fitness of the two major-party candidates remained a central focus of the race. She was declared healthy and fit to serve.

Russia is commanding center stage in a presidential election for the first time in decades and President Vladimir Putin is being portrayed as a sinister puppeteer looming over the bitter contest between Democrat Hillary Clinton and Republican Donald Trump.

Blogosphere

"One U.S. tech superpower after another has found itself in the cross-hairs of European corporate cops over taxes, monopoly power and misuse of consumer data," writes Gadfly. "To some, this reeks of overreach by an Old Continent jealous of Silicon Valley.Yet on closer examination, the tough medicine prescribed by Brussels watchdogs such as antitrust boss Margrethe Vestager may end up doing some good for Amazon, Google, Facebook and Apple."

Trending

BBRY ORCL ARLZ AERI F JPM WLL T WFC D BA SWKS AAPL SNE TMUS M SPY

#SouthPark opened its 20th season last night, covering everythign from Colin Kaepernick to Hollywood reboots.

Guess This Chart

• Legg Mason LM's Bill Miller said this company is one of his largest holdings at Tuesday's Delivering Alpha conference.
• This company has been the target of short selling activity from an activist investor.
• Sympathy plays include Johnson & Johnson JNJ and Pfizer PFE.