The Market In 5 Minutes: Earnings Results, Conferences, Trump And More

Macro Focus

• Boston Federal Reserve Bank President Eric Rosengren is set to speak in Hartford, Conn at 9:00 a.m. ET.
• The Labor Market Conditions Index for December is schedule for release at 10:00 a.m. ET.
• The Treasury is set to auction 3-and 6-month bills at 11:30 a.m. ET.
• The TD Ameritrade Investor Movement Index for December will be released at 12:30 p.m. ET.
• Atlanta Federal Reserve Bank President Dennis Lockhart is set to speak at 12:40 p.m. ET.
• Data on consumer credit for November will be released at 3:00 p.m. ET.

BZ News Desk Focus

In what may be the calm before the storm on the earnings front, a pair of seemingly unrelated companies are set to post their latest results. However, given that Wall Street analysts anticipate modest declines on the top and bottom lines for both Delta Air Lines (NYSE: DAL) and SUPERVALU (NYSE: SVU), investors may be wondering if this is a sign of things to come. Note that these results are for the period during which it was revealed that Warren Buffett had taken positions in Delta and other airlines, and the leading supermarket operator sold its Save-A-Lot business for $1.3 billion.

Sell-Side Themes

Barclays initiated coverage on Coca-Cola (NYSE: KO), PepsiCo (NYSE: PEP) and Dr. Pepper Snapple (NYSE:DPS all at Equal-Weight.

JPMorgan upgraded Baidu (NASDAQ: BIDU) and JD.com (NASDAQ: JD).

Sell-Side's Most Noteworthy Calls

• UBS downgraded VMware (NYSE: VMW) to Neutral.
• Mizuho downgraded Eagle Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ: EGRX) to Underperform.
• Barclays upgraded Clorox (NYSE: CLX) to Equal-Weight.

Deal Talk

Mast Therapeutics (NYSE: MSTX) and Savara announced Saturday that the two companies have entered into a definitive merger agreement, valuing Mast at $36.5 million. Current Mast stockholders will collectively own approximately 24 percent, and Savara stockholders will collectively own approximately 76 percent, of the combined company on a pro-forma basis.

Merrimack Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ: MACK) confirmed a Reuters report Sunday that it has entered into a definitive asset purchase and sale agreement with Ipsen (OTC: IPSEY) sell its first commercial product ONIVYDE and its generic version of DOXIL in a transaction valued at up to $1.025 billion, plus up to $33 million in net milestone payments. The transaction is expected to be completed in Q1 of 2017.

In The News

The 35th JPMorgan Chase Healthcare Conference gets underway on January 9 and will go on until January 13. Touted as the life science industry's largest conferences of the year, the event showcases innovations of healthcare companies, which are out to scout for their next partners or investors.

As the first major awards show since Donald Trump's election, the Golden Globes offered a record-setting embrace of the musical "La La Land," but also a snapshot of the hostile atmosphere between the President-elect and the arts/entertainment.

Blogopshere

"The thing about major milestones for the Dow Jones Industrial Average – whether we’re talking about 2,000 or 20,000, is that they contain precisely zero useful information about what the future may hold. They’re fun to talk about and to celebrate, but they work terribly as buying or selling indicators."

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