The Market In 5 Minutes: BlackBerry, Nike Earnings In Focus

Macro Focus

U.S. stock futures traded higher in early pre-market trade. Futures for the Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 46 points to 19,883.00, while the Standard & Poor's 500 index futures gained 5.75 points to 2,265.75. Futures for the Nasdaq 100 index rose 8.50 points to 4,947.50.

Oil prices traded higher as Brent crude futures gained 0.86 percent to trade at $55.39 per barrel, while US WTI crude futures also rose 0.58 percent to trade at $53.37 a barrel.

• The Johnson Redbook Retail Sales Index for the latest week is schedule for release at 8:55 a.m. ET.
• The Treasury is set to auction 4-week bills at 11:30 a.m. ET.

BZ News Desk Focus

• General Mills (NYSE: GIS) Q2 EPS $0.85 vs $0.86 Est, Revenue $4.1B vs $4.2B Est
• Blackberry (NASDAQ: BBRY) Q4 EPS $(0.02) vs $(0.01) Est, Revenue $301M vs $332M Est
• Darden Restaurants (NYSE: DRI) Reports Q2 EPS $0.64 vs. Est. $0.64, Rev. $1.642B vs. Est. $1.65B
• Navistar (NYSE: NAV) Q4 EPS $(0.42) vs $0.26 Est, Revenue $2.1B vs $2.2B Est
• Patheon (NYSE: PTHN) Q4 EPS $0.30 vs $0.39 Est, Revenue $510.2M vs $497.8M Est

Nike (NYSE: NKE) reports after today's close. Nike has been the worst-performing stock in the Dow in 2016.

Sell-Side Themes

Maxim initiated coverage on Nordic American Tanker (NYSE: NAT) at Sell, while Tsakos Energy (NYSE: TNP) and Pyxis Tankers (NASDAQ: PXS) received Buy ratings.

Sell-Side's Most Noteworthy Calls

• SunTrust downgraded Cempra (NASDAQ: CEMP) to Sell.
• Deutsche Bank downgraded CBOE Holdings (NASDAQ: CBOE) to Sell.
• Goldman Sachs upgraded Western Digital (NASDAQ: WDC) to Neutral.
• Mizuho upgraded Advanced Micro Devices (NASDAQ: AMD) to Buy.
• Loop Capital started Bed Bath & Beyond (NASDAQ: BBBY) at Sell.
• Goldman Sachs started Sarepta Therapeutics (NASDAQ: SRPT) at Neutral.

Deal Talk

Icahn Enterprises (NASDAQ: IEP) announced a definitive agreement to sell its indirectly wholly-owned subsidiary American Railcar Leasing LLC to SMBC Rail Services LLC for an enterprise value of $2.778 billion. The initial closing is expected to occur in Q2 of 2017. American Railcar Industries (NASDAQ: ARII) closed at $47.38 on Monday, up 4.41 percent, as traders confused that stock.

Tribune Media (NYSE: TRCO) announced it has agreed to sell substantially all of its Digital and Data business operations, comprised of Gracenote video, music and sports, to the Nielsen Company (NYSE: NLSN) for $560 million in cash.

In The News

The U.S. closed its main diplomatic missions in Turkey after a man fired shots outside its embassy not far from where the Russian ambassador was assassinated hours before, further rattling nerves in a country hit by a string of terrorist attacks.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel the deadly truck crash at a Berlin Christmas market was believed to have been a terrorist attack. She said Monday’s attack, in which a semitrailer plunged into crowd of holiday revelers at the market in front of the Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church killing 12 people and injuring 48 others, may have been perpetrated by a migrant who had sought asylum in Germany.

Blogosphere

India's golden parachute fails: "If demonetization was hurting Indian gold demand at a time when it's normally strong, that might help explain the savagery of the price fall. Unfortunately for bulls, the opposite seems to have happened. Gold consumption didn't weaken, or even hold steady in November. It boomed."

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