The Market In 5 Minutes: Symantec To Buy LifeLock, New Netflix Buy Rating

Macro Focus

Futures for the Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 12 points to 18,865.00, while the Standard & Poor’s 500 index futures gained 4.50 points to 2,185.25. Futures for the Nasdaq 100 index gained 11.75 points to 4,820.25.

Oil prices traded higher as Brent crude futures rose 1.98 percent to trade at $47.79 per barrel, while US WTI crude futures also rose 1.94 percent to trade at $47.26 a barrel.

• Federal Reserve Vice Chairman Stanley Fischer is set to speak at the Council on Foreign Relations in New York at 8:00 a.m. ET.
• The Treasury is set to auction 3-and 6-month bills at 11:30 a.m. ET.
• The Treasury will also auction 2-year notes at 1:00 p.m. ET.

BZ News Desk Focus

Those looking forward to the Thanksgiving holiday this week no doubt will have food on their minds. So, how apropos that three leading packaged foods makers will be posting their latest earnings results in this shortened trading week.

The consensus analysts' forecast calls for Campbell Soup CPB results to be about the same as a year ago, in the wake of an earnings miss in the previous quarter. Both Hormel Foods HRL and Tyson Foods TSN are expected to show earnings growth, but only one of them on the top line. During the quarter, the former announced the retirement of its CEO and the latter raised its fiscal-year guidance and later reiterated that outlook.

Sell-Side Themes

Myovant Sciences MYOV received a couple of Outperform ratings as analysts began initiating coverage of the company.

Sell-Side's Most Noteworthy Calls

• Deutsche Bank upgraded Antero Resources AR to Buy.
• HSBC upgraded Volkswagen VLKAY to Buy.
• Brean Capital started Netflix NFLX at Buy.
• Goldman Sachs started International Flavors & Fragrances IFF at Neutral.

Deal Talk

Bloomberg reported Sunday that Symantec SYMC has reached a deal to acquire LifeLock LOCK for $2.4 billion. The deal could be announced on Monday.

Novartis NVS announced it has acquired Selexys Pharmaceuticals, a company specializing in development of therapeutics in certain hematologic and inflammatory disorders. Novartis exercised its right to acquire Selexys following receipt of results of the SUSTAIN study, a Phase II trial evaluating the use of SelG1, an anti-P-selectin antibody, in the reduction of vaso-occlusive pain crises in patients with sickle cell disease (SCD).

In The News

The Obama Administration is considering new measures to strengthen the landmark nuclear accord with Iran, including steps to provide licenses for more American businesses to enter the Iranian market and the lifting of additional U.S. sanctions.

President-elect Donald Trump accused the "Hamilton" cast Saturday of harassing Vice President-elect Mike Pence at a performance Friday evening after the actors called on Pence to "uphold our American values."

Trump also agreed to a $25 million settlement to end the fraud cases against his now-defunct Trump University, New York's attorney general said — a move that the president-elect said Saturday was done in order to "focus on the country."

Blogosphere

"If Donald Trump could trigger a global bond selloff, wait till you see what he does to the euro. The greenback is already in the midst of its longest winning streak against the common currency since its debut in 1999, and is now at the highest level in about a year. Get ready for a sustained shift weaker as the currency finally breaks its extraordinary resistance to economic reality."

Trending

DRYS SPU CSIQ LOCK NVS SYMC CLD YY OCUL SINA TIF VIPS

Guess This Chart

• This company is known as the "YouTube of China."
• This company is due to report earnings Monday after the bell, with estimated EPS of $0.20 on revenue of $173.19 million.
• Sympathy plays include SINA and Momo.