The Market In 5 Minutes: Happy Festivus!

Macro Focus

Futures for the Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped 1 point to 19,873.00, while the Standard & Poor’s 500 index futures rose 0.25 points to 2,259.00. Futures for the Nasdaq 100 index slipped 3 points to 4,933.75.

Oil prices traded lower as Brent crude futures dropped 0.82 percent to trade at $54.60 per barrel, while US WTI crude futures also fell 0.83 percent to trade at $52.51 a barrel.

Data on new home sales for November will be released at 10:00 a.m. ET.
The University of Michigan's consumer sentiment index for December is schedule for release at 10:00 a.m. ET.
The Baker Hughes North American rig count report for the latest week will be released at 1:00 p.m. ET.

BZ News Desk Focus

Cintas CTAS Reports Q2 EPS $1.13 vs $1.15 Est, Sales $1.3B vs $1.29B Est
Ohr Pharma OHR Reports FY16 EPS $(0.82) vs $(0.54) in Same Qtr. Last Year
Sonic Foundry SOFO Reports Q4 EPS ($0.19), Revenue $9.5M Up 4% YoY, Billings $1.5M Up 38% YoY
Cal-Maine Foods CALM Reports Q2 EPS $(0.48), Inline, Sales $253.5M vs $262.8M Est.

Sell-Side Themes

Mizuho initiated Glu Mobile GLUU at Neutral, Zynga ZNGA and GameStop GME at Buy.

Aegis initiated FedEx FDX at Buy and United Parcel Service UPS at Neutral.

Sell-Side's Most Noteworthy Calls

Brean downgraded Time Warner TWX to Hold.
Argus downgraded Sun Life Financial SLF to Hold.
Jefferies started Orbotech ORBK at Buy.

Deal Talk

U.S. antitrust regulators are ready to approve Abbott Laboratories' ABT acquisition of St. Jude Medical STJ, according to sources as reported by Dow Jones. FTC approval could happen as early as this, sources said. EU antitrust regulators approved the deal in November, conditional on the companies divesting two devices used in cardiovascular treatments.

A report from Deal Reporter mentioned that Mondelez MDLZ could be getting ready to make a new bid for Hershey HSY, according to sources. Mondelez had ended its bid to acquire Hershey in August following rejecting of multiple offers by Hershey.

In The News

The man suspected of carrying out the truck attack on a Christmas market in Berlin has been killed in a shootout in Milan, a top Italian official said.

The Obama administration scrambled to resolve its remaining crisis-era megabank mortgage cases, striking multibillion-dollar settlements with Deutsche Bank and Credit Suisse over toxic securities.

There's nothing better from a public relations standpoint than whipping the public into a frenzy over a new product or service. Several companies made a big splash this year with big announcements, events and launches. Here's a look at how the stocks performed after the initial hype died down.

Blogosphere

"Metals markets have performed a dramatic reversal as 2016 nears its close.Copper, having struggled to post gains all year amid healthy supplies and underwhelming demand, put in its strongest monthly performance since 2006 in November, with three-month LME futures climbing 20 percent. Gold, which was up as much as 30 percent in July and heading for its biggest annual increase since 2010, has crashed to a point where it's likely to end the year just $50 or so above where it started."

-

-

-

-

-

-

-

-

-

-

-

-

-

-