The Market In 5 Minutes: Yahoo, Outerwall Highlight Merger Monday

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

U.S. stocks closed higher for the fourth straight week on Friday, with the S&P hitting a new record high. The Dow Jones industrial average closed near its record level. The S&P 500 closed Friday at 2,175.03, up 13 points for the week. The Dow closed at 18,570, a few points shy of its all-time closing high.

U.S. stock futures struggled for direction on Monday, as investors stayed cautious ahead of a busy news week with earnings kicking into high gear and more than a dozen central banks holding policy meetings. "Markets are starting off a potentially pivotal week in a cautious approach as traders choose to keep their powder dry ahead of the key risk events later in the week," said Richard Perry, market analyst at Hantec Markets.

The Dallas Fed manufacturing business index for July is schedule for release at 10:30 a.m. ET.

The Treasury is set to auction 3- and 6-month bills at 11:30 a.m. ET. The Treasury will auction 2-year notes at 1:00 p.m. ET.

On Wednesday morning, UK GDP for Q2 is due. Later that day, the U.S. Federal Open Market Committee’s latest decision on an interest rate hike will be announced. On Friday, the Bank of Japan will release its annual outlook. Meanwhile, preliminary U.S. Q2 GDP Q2 is due along with Canada’s month-over-month GDP number.

BZ News Desk Focus

The consensus Wall Street forecasts indicate that analysts have high hopes for solid to strong results from Amgen AMGN and Celgene CELG, on both the top and bottom lines. Shares of both concluded the three months that ended in June not far from where they began. The expectations for Gilead Sciences GILD are different though. The consensus estimates indicate some shrinkage of both earnings and revenue, relative to the same period of last year.

Sell-Side Themes

A slew of analyst stated coverage on Syros Pharmaceuticals SYRS with Outperform ratings.

Outerwall OUTR caught tow downgrades from Roth Capital and Wedbush.

Sell-Side's Most Noteworthy Calls

Deutsche Bank downgraded Tablaeu Software DATA to Hold.
Piper Jaffray downgraded Deere DE to Underweight.
Macquarie upgraded Whole Foods WFM to Outperform.
Citi upgraded Hewlett Packard HPE to Buy.
Pacific Crest initiated coverage on Level 3 LVLT at Sector Weight.

Deal Talk

Verizon VZ to acquire Yahoo's YHOO operating business for $4.83 billion in cash, expected to close in Q1 2017.

Outerwall OUTR -- owner of Coinstar and Redbox -- to be purchased by certain funds Managed by affiliates of Apollo Global Mgmt for $52 per share in cash.

Tesla TSLA and SolarCity SCTY are said to be closed to a merger, according to sources as reported Reuters on Saturday. The sources said the companies are in the final stages of due diligence and a deal could be finalized in the coming days. Tesla announced on June 21 it had bid $2.8 billion for Solar City.

In The News

Debbie Wasserman Schultz announced Sunday she is stepping down as chairwoman of the Democratic National Committee at the end of the party's convention, which is set to begin Monday. The Florida congresswoman's resignation comes amid the release of thousand of leaked emails showing DNC staffers favoring Hillary Clinton over Bernie Sanders in the party's 2016 primary contest.

Two people were shot dead and at least 14 others injured in a shooting early Monday at a nightclub in Fort Myers, Florida. Two suspects have been detained, police confirmed.

Authorities said a 27-year-old Syrian man tried to enter an outdoor concert in southern Germany and then blew himself up, injuring 12 people, in what appeared to be this country’s first suicide bombing in years.

Blogosphere

Fintech has become one of the hottest buzzword on Wall Street. As digital bank startups slowly make waves in Europe, is it only a matter of time before we see the Bank of Facebook?

So you want to be a hedge fund manager...

Trending

YHOO SPU VZ MCD DHR INTC MACK KMB FB SWK SLB WHY BABA CRM GOOGL [StockTwits]

Five days after splitting WWE WWE in two (the company will have two weekly lives shows on Monday and Tuesday with different rosters), Battleground gave fans little in the way of storyline movement despite some above-average action during the three-hour pay-per-view. With less than a month to go until SummerSlam, WWE's second-biggest event each year, there is a lot of work to do in building a card that is worthy of the normal hype associated with the event.