The Market In 5 Minutes: Sell-Side Starts Coverage On Auto, Gold Stocks

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. stock futures traded higher in early pre-market trade. Futures for the Dow Jones Industrial Average climbed 19 points to 18,480.00, while the Standard & Poor’s 500 index futures gained 2 points to 2,177.25. Futures for the Nasdaq 100 index rose 6 points to 4,785.25.

Oil prices traded higher as Brent crude futures gained 0.37 percent to trade at $45.56 per barrel, while US WTI crude futures also rose 0.51 percent to trade at $43.24 a barrel.

Data on wholesale inventories for June will be released at 10:00 a.m. ET.
The Treasury is set to auction 4-week bills at 11:30 a.m. ET.
The Treasury will auction 3-year notes at 1:00 p.m. ET.

BZ News Desk Focus

Valeant VRX Q2 EPS $1.40 vs $1.48 est, Revenue $2.4B vs $2.5B est.; Reaffirms FY 2016 Revenue and EPS Guidance
Vivint Solar VSLR Reports Q2 EPS $(0.49) vs. Est. $(0.58), Rev. $34.9M vs. Est. $24.9M
LendingClub LC Reports Q2 Loss -$0.09 vs Est Loss -$0.02, Rev $102.4M vs $100.51M Est.
Rackspace RAX Reports Q2 EPS $0.28 vs $0.22 Est., Sales $523.6M vs $521.2M Est.
Twilio TWLO Reports Q2 EPS $(0.08) vs. Prior Year Quarter $0.11, Rev. $64.5M vs. Prior Year Quarter $37.9M
Coach COH Q4 EPS $0.45 vs $0.41 est, Revenue $1.14B vs $1.17B est

Sell-Side Themes

Jefferies initiated coverage on the auto companies, with Fiat Chrysler FCAU receiving the only Buy ratings.

Morgan Stanley started coverage on a few gold stocks, all with Equal-Weight ratings.

Sell-Side's Most Noteworthy Calls

Citi downgraded Apache APA to Neutral.
Imperial downgraded FireEye FEYE to In-lIne.
Mizuho upgraded Gap GPS to Neutral.
Piper Jaffray upgraded Chevron CVX to Overweight.
Loop Capital started coverage of The Madison Square Garden Company MSG at Buy and MSG Networks MSGN at Hold.

Deal Talk

BP BP is seeking buyers for its 50 percent stake in Chinese petrochemicals joint venture SECCO, its largest investment in China, in a deal Reuters sources said could fetch $2-$3 billion. State-owned China Petroleum & Chemical Corp (Sinopec), which owns the other half of the venture and has a right of first refusal, said it was discussing the conditions put forward by BP, but has made no decision.

Massages at the airport? New York-based Airport Spa Company XpresSpa is making this a reality to the relief of travelers everywhere. The company announced it has been acquired by Form Holdings Corp FH. The deal worth a reported $40 million is roughly equal to XpresSpa's annual revenue. XspresSpa operates 47 locations in 20 U.S. airports, and the company is aiming for 120 locations nationwide.

In The News

Delta Air Lines DAL said it was cancelling nearly 250 flights on Tuesday as it looks to restore operations after a power outage hit its computer systems on Monday, causing the cancellation of about 1,000 flights.

Donald Trump worked Monday to refocus his presidential campaign and reassure concerned Republicans, using a Detroit Economic Club luncheon to tout a series of conservative proposals to cut taxes, freeze new business regulations and lift energy industry restrictions imposed by the Obama administration.

Blogosphere

From Gadfly: "Uber found out what many other U.S. tech companies realized long ago: China is an alluring trap. Most American web companies including Google, Facebook and Amazon are either banned from China or have flopped there. And their odds of success are only getting slimmer."

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