The Market In 5 Minutes: Twitter Falls, Jobless Claims Near Decade Lows, And A Huge Solar Call

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

Futures for the Dow Jones Industrial Average declined 17 points to 18,184.00, while the Standard & Poor’s 500 index futures slipped 2.25 points to 2,151.00. Futures for the Nasdaq 100 index fell 3.50 points to 4,869.75.

Oil prices traded mixed as Brent crude futures gained 0.12 percent to trade at $51.92 per barrel, while US WTI crude futures also fell 0.18 percent to trade at $49.74 a barrel.

Initial Jobless Claims for Sep 30 249.0K vs 257.0K consensus estimate. USA Continuing Claims for Sep 23 2.06M vs 2.09M consensus estimate.

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 recent week will be released at 4:30 p.m. ET.

BZ News Desk Focus

Yum Brands YUM Reports Q3 Adj. EPS $1.09 vs $1 in Same Qtr. Last Year, Sales $3.316B
Walmart WMT Reaffirms FY17 Adj. EPS Outlook $4.15-$4.35, Sees FY18 GAAP EPS Relatively Flat to FY17 Adj. EPS
Zumiez ZUMZ Raises Q3 Rev. Guidance From $209-$213M To $216-$217M, EPS From $0.21-$0.26 To $0.29-$0.30

Sell-Side Themes

Axiom's Gordon Johnson has been a big solar bear since 2009, but upgraded the entire sector this morning.

Sell-Side's Most Noteworthy Calls

Goldman Sachs downgraded Tesla TSLA to Neutral.
Cleveland Research downgraded Lowes LOW to Neutral.
Argus upgraded MGM Resorts MGM to Buy.
BMO upgraded Ionis Pharma IONS to Outperform.

Deal Talk

The latest on Twitter TWTR? Recode reported that Google GOOGL, Apple AAPL and Disney DIS are not interested in buying the social media company. The stock fell more than 15 percent Thursday morning.

Weight Watchers WTW shares rose to a high of $11.44 Wednesday, following a tweet from DAMS Consulting mentioning a rumor of two bidders. The tweet said the bids are more than $30 per share in cash. These rumors have been floating around for about a month.

In The News

Theranos, the company led by Elizabeth Holmes, will shut down facilities and shed more than 40 percent of its workforce as it shifts to developing products for outside labs.

Hurricane Matthew strengthened yet again early Thursday as it crawled toward the United States, where as many as 1.5 million people were fleeing south Atlantic coastal areas. Evacuations were under way in Florida, Georgia and South Carolina after Matthew, which hammered Haiti and strafed Cuba, began battering the Bahamas.

Blogosphere

The accelerating demise of go-anywhere funds? Gadfly takes a look at "the year investors revolted."

Guess This Chart

Sympathy plays include NRG Energy, Vivint Solar and Sunrun.
This company is involved in a merger stemming from its founder.
One of the biggest analysts in this sector upgraded the entire sector Thursday morning.

Market News and Data brought to you by Benzinga APIs

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