The Market In 5 Minutes: A Couple Of Pharma Stocks Move 70% In Opposite Directions

Macro Focus

Futures for the Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 26 points to 18,813.00, while the Standard & Poor’s 500 index futures declined 2 points to 2,159.50. Futures for the Nasdaq 100 index dropped 6 points to 4,742.50.

Oil prices traded lower as Brent crude futures fell 1.16 percent to trade at $44.23 per barrel, while US WTI crude futures also fell 1.43 percent to trade at $43.52 a barrel. The dollar rose to ¥107.54 yen versus the Japanese yen, compared to ¥106.69 late Friday.

• The Treasury is set to auction 3-and 6-month bills at 11:30 a.m. ET.
• Dallas Federal Reserve Bank President Robert Kaplan will speak at the Wichita Falls Annual Economic Forum in Wichita Falls, Texas at 1:20 p.m. ET.
• Richmond Fed President Jeffrey Lacker is set to speak at Washington College in Chestertown, Maryland at 4:30 p.m. ET.
• San Francisco Federal Reserve Bank President John Williams will speak at the Bay Area Council in San Francisco at 6:30 p.m. ET.

BZ News Desk Focus

It's that time when big retailers to take their turns on the earnings stage. The latest quarterly numbers from big-box store operators Home Depot HD and Target TGT will be among the highlights this week. The consensus Wall Street forecasts see top and bottom line growth for the home improvement superstore operator for the three months that included the heart of hurricane season. On the other hand, the Minneapolis-based retail giant is expected to show earnings and revenue declines year over year, in the period when it announced a new share buyback plan.

Home Depot is scheduled to report its latest results before the opening bell on Tuesday, while Target is on tap before trading begins on Wednesday.

Corbus CRBP spiked 65 percent after positive phase 2 top line data, while Dynavax DVAX dropped more than 70 percent following a Compete Response Letter.

Sell-Side Themes

Morgan Stanley suggested buying steel names as we head into a Donald Trump presidency, upgrading the likes of US Steel X and AK Steel AKS.

Stifel initiated coverage on Gilead Sciences GILD and Sage Therapeutics SAGE at Buy.

Sell-Side's Most Noteworthy Calls

• Baird downgraded Williams-Sonoma WSM to Neutral.
• Citi downgraded SeaWorld SEAS to Neutral.
• Pacific Crest upgraded Square SQ to Overweight.
• Credit Suisse upgraded PTC Therapeutics PTCT to Outperform.
• Barclays started coverage on Teva Pharmaceuticals TEVA at Equal-Weight.

Deal Talk

Siemens SIEGY is close to a deal to acquire Mentor Graphics MENT for $4.5 billion to $4.6 billion in cash, according to a report from Reuters on Sunday. A deal could be announced as early as Monday. Siemens and Mentor Graphics weren't available for comment

"Verizon doesn’t own Yahoo yet, but it has given every indication the deal is moving forward despite all the fallout from the Yahoo e-mail hack," according to the New York Post. "One surprising turn is that Tim Armstrong, who runs Verizon’s AOL unit, has been chatting with Quicken Loans chief Dan Gilbert about ways they can jointly fortify Yahoo Finance, one of Yahoo’s rare success stories... We hear that two execs connected recently in Gilbert’s hometown of Detroit."

In The News

Despite the overall stability, Trump’s election has certainly had an impact on a number of traders. International stocks, hospital stocks, gun stocks and gold stocks have been hammered. Prison stocks, drug stocks and bank stocks have soared. however, two popular trading strategies -- statistical arbitrage and mean reversion -- took a big hit last week.

On the federal level, Donald Trump and the Republican party won the election. This means that, soon, the country will be run by a Republican president, a Republican House and a Republican Senate. Will they continue to let states decide on marijuana laws, or will they go back on the 2013 Cole Memo, which stipulates noninterference (from federal agencies) with these state marijuana laws? To get a clearer picture of what’s coming, Benzinga contacted industry expert Alan Brochstein, founding partner at New Cannabis Ventures and founder at 420 Investor.

Blogopshere

"There are a lot of narratives out there in the post-election aftermath talking about how stocks are rallying on Trump’s plans or because his policies might be inflationary in a good way or conducive to infrastructure spending or whatever," says The Reformed Broker. "It’s very important that you ignore it all."

Trending

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Guess This Chart

• This stock hit an all-time high on Friday after reporting a Q3 earnings beat.
• This company makes processors for video games, and is also active in the virtual reality space.
• Sympathy plays include Advanced Micro Devices, Ambarella and Qualcomm.