The Market In 5 Minutes: Fed Focus, British Pound, More Earnings

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 dropped 11 points to 18,059.00, while the Standard & Poor’s 500 index futures declined 0.50 points to 2,134.00. Futures for the Nasdaq 100 index fell 4.50 points to 4,822.50.

Oil prices traded lower as Brent crude futures gained 0.55 percent to trade at $52.70 per barrel, while US WTI crude futures also rose 0.49 percent to trade at $51.49 a barrel.

The British pound touched a historic low against a basket of currencies on Tuesday, according to Bank of England data released Wednesday morning.

• Kansas City Federal Reserve Bank President Esther George will speak at the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago's Annual Payment Symposium at 9:40 a.m. ET.
• The Labor Department's JOLTS report for August will be released at 10:00 a.m. ET.
• The Treasury is set to auction 3-and 10-year notes at 1:00 a.m. ET.
• The Federal Open Market Committee will issue minutes of its latest meeting at 2:00 p.m. ET.

BZ News Desk Focus

Barracuda Networks (NYSE: CUDA) Reports Q2 Non-GAAP EPS $0.21 vs $ 0.13 Est., Revenue $87.9M vs $85.27M Est.
Blackhawk (NASDAQ: HAWK) Reports Q3 Adj. EPS $0.14 vs $0.10 Est., Adj. Operating Sales $168.9M vs $189.3M Est.
Fortinet (NASDAQ: FTNT) Cuts Q3 Sales Outlook from $319M-$324M to $311M-$316M vs $322.4M Est.

There was a Bloomberg report that said Medtronic (NYSE: MDT) has had reports of lithium clusters similar to St. Jude Medical (NYSE: STJ). "[Medtronic] uses a different battery, with a different battery design," a spokesperson told Benzinga. "Also, we manufacture our own batteries."

Sell-Side Themes

Credit Suisse upgraded Advanced Micro Devics (NASDAQ: AMD) (Neutral) and Marvell (NASDAQ: MRVL) (Outperform).

Sell-Side's Most Noteworthy Calls

• Cowen downgraded Hanesbrands (NYSE: HBI) to market Perform.
• Baird downgraded Theravance (NASDAQ: TBPH) to Underperform.
• Argus upgraded Procter & Gamble (NYSE: PG) to Buy.
• BMO upgraded Motorola Solutions (NYSE: MSI) to Outperform.
• Argus started GrubHub (NYSE: GRUB) at Buy.

Deal Talk

Polaris (NYSE: PII) to Acquire Transamerican Auto Parts for $665 million.

In The News

Texas helped lead the U.S. out of recession, thanks in part to the shale drilling revolution. But after more than two years of slumping oil prices, the state is now a sore spot for the national economy.

It's not too surprising that TV ratings for the second presidential debate on Sunday were 18 percent lower than ratings for the first debate. At 69 million viewers, TV ratings were still nearly a record high for a second presidential debate, even though the debate was up against Sunday night NFL football. However, Twitter (NYSE: TWTR) reported a surge in the number of viewers and engagement in the second debate. Twitter’s live stream of the second debate reached 2.5 million unique viewers, up 30 percent from the first debate.

Blogosphere

"In slashing its outlook for third-quarter operating income from 7.8 trillion won to 5.2 trillion won," Tim Culpan writes about Samsung (OTC: SSNLF), "executives have signaled their willingness to quickly recognize the massive scale and scope of the costs. Revenue will now be 47 trillion won instead of 49 trillion won."

Not all stock market adages work to perfection. However, "Sell Rosh Hashanah, Buy Yom Kippur" has worked out nicely in 2016.

Trending

Yesterday was #NationalComingOutDay. Check out this list of 10 proud LGBT CEOs.

Guess This Chart

• This restaurant stock is trading ex-dividend today.
• This stock hit an all-time high of just under $173 in June, but has since fallen 22% to $133.
• Sympathy plays include Bob Evans Farms and Denny's.