The Market In 5 Minutes: Nike, Finish Line Earnings Shake Stocks

Macro Focus

Futures for the Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 3 points to 19,902.00, while the Standard & Poor’s 500 index futures dropped 2.25 points to 2,264.00. Futures for the Nasdaq 100 index slipped 4.50 points to 4,951.25.

Oil prices traded higher as Brent crude futures gained 0.54 percent to trade at $55.65 per barrel, while US WTI crude futures also rose 0.53 percent to trade at $53.58 a barrel.

MBA Mortgage Applications up 2.5%

Data on existing home sales for November will be released at 10:00 a.m. ET.
The Energy Information Administration’s weekly report on petroleum inventories is schedule for release at 10:30 a.m. ET.

BZ News Desk Focus

Nike NKE Reports Q2 EPS $0.50 vs. Est. $0.43, Rev. $8.2B vs. Est. $8.09B
FedEx FDX Reports Q2 Adj. EPS $2.80 vs $2.60 Est., Sales $14.9B vs $14.92B Est.
Accenture ACN Reports Q1 EPS $1.58 vs. Est. $1.49, Rev. $9B vs. Est. $8.59B
Finish Line FINL Reports Q3 EPS $(0.24) vs. Est. $(0.18), Rev. $371.7M vs. Est. $411M

Sell-Side Themes

Susquehanna initiated coverage on several semiconductor names, such as Mobileye MBLY, Cirrus Logic CRUS and Texas Instruments TXN.

Sell-Side's Most Noteworthy Calls

Raymond James downgraded JetBlue JBLU to Market Perform.
Stifel downgraded Procter & Gamble PG to Hold.
UBS upgraded BP BP to Buy.
Credit Suisse upgraded Sunoco SUN to Outperform.
Citi started Qualcomm QCOM at Neutral.

Deal Talk

Shares of Shake Shack SHAK spiked as high as $39.37 on unconfirmed chatter that McDonald's MCD could bid $48 per share for the burger chain. McDonald's is said to be working with advisors on a proposal. Shake Shack has been the subject of numerous rumors in 2016.

TheStreet TST, the struggling financial news site co-founded by Jim Cramer, is in danger of getting delisted by Nasdaq because its share price has traded at below $1 for more than 30 business days. The exchange will delist TheStreet on June 12 if its shares don’t trade above the dollar level for 10 straight days before that date, the news site disclosed in a regulatory filing.

Carl Icahn is in talks with fellow casino operators about selling control of the recently shuttered Trump Taj Mahal, The New York Post has learned. News of the talks surfaced 24 hours after state legislatures moved to block any chance the activist investor might have had to reopen the casino with non-union workers.

In The News

The most expensive fossil-fuel power plant ever built in the U.S. could soon get a financial lifeline thanks to President-elect Donald Trump, who has signaled interest in clean coal tax-credit initiatives as a way to preserve mining jobs.

Last week, Benzinga covered the allegedly fraudulent activity of Hobbies Discount, the customers of which reported failed delivery of ordered merchandise, refused refunds, evaded emails and — for those whose complaints prompted package reception — poor quality items.

Facebook insiders have since raised alerts about Store Discount Fishing Supplies, a page that links to a website with merchandise and page layout resembling that of Hobbies Discount. The websites have convincing — and identical — features vouching for their legitimacy, including a "McAfee Secure" verification and a secure connection lock in the link bar. However, their customer approval rates are, in equal measures, poor.

Blogosphere

"Break it up and put it back together again. It’s a game plan that has kept bankers in work for years. The idea currently doing the rounds is the potential reunion of Suez , the French waste and water company, with Engie, the energy group from which it was spun off eight years ago. This has long looked like a pipe dream. But it has some logic."

"[I]t is increasingly obvious that we are about to experience a profound, president-led ideological shift."

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