The Market In 5 Minutes: Stock Futures Follow Usain Bolt's Lead

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

The major indexes closed at a record high last Thursday before selling off in Friday's session. U.S. stock futures traded higher in early pre-market trade.

Futures for the Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 40 points to 18,561.00, while the Standard & Poor’s 500 index futures gained 4.25 points to 2,184.25. Futures for the Nasdaq 100 index rose 10 points to 4,813.50.

Oil prices traded higher as Brent crude futures gained 0.28 percent to trade at $47.18 per barrel, while US WTI crude futures also rose 0.45 percent to trade at $44.76 a barrel.

The National Association of Home Builders’ housing market index for August will be released at 10:00 a.m. ET.

The Treasury is set to auction 3-and 6-month bills at 11:30 a.m. ET.

The Treasury International Capital data for June will be released at 4:00 p.m. ET.

BZ News Desk Focus

Sysco SYY Reports Q4 Adj. EPS $0.64 vs. Est. $0.61, Rev. $13.6B vs. Est. $13.68B

The retail earnings parade kicked off last week with mixed results from some prominent department store operators offering something for the bulls as well as the bears. Many more retailers are set to share their latest results this week, including leading specialty retailers Home Depot HD and Staples SPLS, as well as big-box retailers Target TGT and Wal-Mart WMT.

Sell-Side Themes

Patheon PTHN revived three Overweight initiations, while Audentes Therapeutics BOLD received two Outperform ratings.

Sell-Side's Most Noteworthy Calls

Jefferies downgraded Best Buy BBY to Hold.
Argus downgraded McDonald's MCD to Hold.
B. Riley upgraded Procter & Gamble PG to Buy.
Mizuho upgraded Valeant VRX to Neutral.

Deal Talk

Ride-sharing company Lyft, is said to have rejected a takeover approach from General Motors GM, according to The Information on Friday. GM owns 9 percent of Lyft.

Private-equity firm TPG has agreed to buy cable-television providers RCN and Grande Communications for about $2.25 billion including debt, people familiar with the matter told Wall Street Journal, in a bet that demand for new broadband services will fuel growth in the businesses.

Real-estate investment trust MAA is nearing a deal to buy Post Properties PPS for about $4 billion, according to sources as reported by WSJ. Post shareholders will receive 0.71 share of new MAA stock for each share they own, the sources said.

In The News

For a second night, disorder hit Milwaukee late Sunday, with protesters throwing rocks, bricks and glass bottles at police, shots ringing out and a shooting victim rescued by officers and whisked to a hospital in an armored vehicle. The disturbances came as the city coped with the aftermath of Saturday night's violence that followed a police shooting of an armed suspect.

Twitter TWTR is in talks with Apple AAPL to bring the Twitter app to Apple TV, which would potentially let millions of Apple TV users watch the streaming N.F.L. games, according to the two people briefed on the discussions.

Blogosphere

"For three years, Thai consumers sat at home and nursed a debt hangover," says Andy Mukherjee. "That they're starting to go shopping again for things like secondhand bikes, restaurant meals and energy drinks is both encouraging and just as clearly visible in company earnings and stock prices as in Monday's GDP announcement."

Chart of The Day

This company reports earnings later this week.

The stock hit an all-time closing high of $138.77 on August 1.

The Street's consensus forecast for this home improvement retailer is for EPS to have risen more than 13 percent from the same period of last year to $1.97.

Click here for the answer.

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