The Market In 5 Minutes: Quiet End To The Year

Macro Focus

Futures for the Dow Jones Industrial Average climbed 28 points to 19,787.00, while the Standard & Poor’s 500 index futures rose 4 points to 2,249.00. Futures for the Nasdaq 100 index gained 8.25 points to 4,927.00.

Oil prices traded higher as Brent crude futures dropped 0.14 percent to trade at $56.14 per barrel, while US WTI crude futures also rose 0.04 percent to trade at $53.79 a barrel.

The Chicago PMI for December is schedule for release at 9:45 a.m. ET.
The Baker Hughes North American rig count report for the latest week will be released at 1:00 p.m. ET.

BZ News Desk Focus

Mark Cuban called Amazon AMZN "the best start up in the world."

If gold's momentum continues through the end of the week, the precious metal will end the year on a strong note, much like it started 2016.

Sell-Side's Most Noteworthy Calls

Deutsche Bank upgraded China Lodging Group HTHT from Hold to Buy and raised the price target from $35 to $60.
SunTrust Robinson Humphrey maintained Kate Spade KATE with a Neutral and raised the price target from $15 to $18.
Janney Capital downgraded Innocoll Holdings INNL from Buy to Neutral.
Morgan Stanley upgraded Cempra CEMP from Underweight to Equal-Weight and lowered the price target from $5 to $3.

Deal Talk

Kate Spade is said to be planning to begin a formal sale process next month, according to a source as reported by Bloomberg on Thursday. The source says there are six potential bidders. The NY Post reported that activist investor Caerus Investors' Ward Davis said he had constructive dialogue with the Kate Spade board. On Wednesday, Dow Jones reported that the marketer of women's apparel and accessories was considering a sale.

Cabela's CAB and Bass Pro Group have received a request for additional information and documentary material from FTC in connection with its merger. There was also a report that the closing of the merger has been delayed until October 2017.

In The News

President Barack Obama ordered the expulsion of 35 Russian suspected spies and imposed sanctions on two Russian intelligence agencies over their involvement in hacking U.S. political groups in the 2016 presidential election. The measures mark a new post-Cold War low in U.S.-Russian ties and set up a potential flashpoint between incoming President-elect Donald Trump and fellow Republicans in Congress over how to deal with Moscow.

About 4.4 million workers across the country are slated to receive a raise at the start of the year, a shift that may shed light on a long-running debate about the effects of mandated pay increases at the bottom of the wage scale.

Blogosphere

The roughly $3 trillion in global takeovers announced in 2016 was near the top of the all-time charts, but fell short of last year's record in large part because there were fewer megasized, $10 billion-plus acquisitions. How will M&A look in the Trump era?

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