The Market In 5 Minutes

IN THE NEWS

BENZINGA

Brands constantly trumpet their industry accolades, from J.D. Power Awards to the Benzinga Global Fintech Awards. But what do companies have to do in order to win these awards? Link

Snap Inc SNAP shares rose 4.5 percent on Monday after a flood of Wall Street analyst published bullish research notes on the company: Link

Even though recent declarations from officials in the Trump administration might suggest otherwise, the U.S. cannabis industry will continue to grow at a 27 percent CAGR over the next five years, hitting sales of $22.6 billion by 2021, Arcview Market Research revealed in its most recent report: Link

THE WALL STREET JOURNAL

Building a mass-market electric vehicle and colonizing Mars aren’t ambitious enough for Elon Musk. The billionaire entrepreneur now wants to merge computers with human brains to help people keep up with machines: Link

Tencent Holdings Ltd. has taken a 5% stake in Tesla Inc. TSLA, making the biggest company in China one of the largest owners of Elon Musk’s cash-hungry electric car maker: Link

REUTERS

Amazon.com, Inc. AMZN has agreed to buy Middle East online retailer Souq.com, thwarting a last-minute bid by Dubai billionaire Mohamed Alabbar's Emaar Malls EMAA.DU: Link

U.S. President Donald Trump touted Ford Motor Company F's expected announcement later on Tuesday about investments and jobs at its U.S. plants, saying the automaker would be making a major investment in three Michigan facilities: Link

BLOOMBERG

American Airlines Group Inc AAL agreed to acquire a minority stake in China Southern Airlines Co Ltd (ADR) ZNH for $200 million, cementing a partnership between the top carriers in the U.S. and Asia: Link

NY POST

The acrimonious divorce between Bill Gross and Pimco has ended amicably — and expensively: Link

ECONOMIC DATA

• USA Wholesale Inventories (MoM) for Feb 0.40% vs 0.20% Est; Prior -0.20%
• Redbook Reports US Retail Sales During First 4 Weeks of March Down 0.7% MoM, Up 1% YoY
• USA S&P/CaseShiller Home Price Index for Jan 5.70% vs 5.60% Est; Home Price Index (MoM) for Jan 0.90% vs 0.70% Est
• The Conference Board’s consumer confidence index for March is schedule for release at 10:00 a.m. ET.
• The Richmond Fed's manufacturing index for March will be released at 10:00 a.m. ET.
• The State Street Investor Confidence Index for February is schedule for release at 10:00 a.m. ET.
• The Treasury is set to auction 4-and 52-week bills at 11:30 a.m. ET.
• The Treasury will also auction 5-year notes at 1:00 p.m. ET.
• Kansas City Federal Reserve Bank President Esther George is set to speak in Midwest City, Okla. at 12:45 p.m. ET.
• Dallas Federal Reserve Bank President Dennis Kaplan will speak in Dallas, Texas at 1:00 p.m. ET.

ANALYST RATINGS

• Morgan Stanley upgraded Golden Ocean Group GOGL from Underweight to Overweight
• Credit Suisse upgraded Commercial Metals CMC from Neutral to Outperform
• Evercore ISI Group upgraded Columbia Property Trust CXP from Underperform to In-Line
• Goldman Sachs downgraded Fidelity National Info FIS from Buy to Neutral
• Morgan Stanley downgraded Exelon EXC from Overweight to Equal-Weight
• Raymond James downgraded KVH Industries KVHI from Strong Buy to Outperform

This 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. To get the full version of this note every morning, click here or email minutes@benzinga.com.