The Market In 5 Minutes: Jobless Claims Lower, Trump Conference Shakes Sectors

Macro Focus

Futures for the Dow Jones Industrial Average tumbled 45 points to 19,832.00, while the Standard & Poor’s 500 index futures fell 6.25 points to 2,264.25. Futures for the Nasdaq 100 index fell 14.50 points to 5,031.00.

Oil prices traded higher as Brent crude futures gained 1.40 percent to trade at $55.87 per barrel, while US WTI crude futures also rose 1.19 percent to trade at $53.69 a barrel.

Initial Jobless Claims for Jan 6 247.0K vs 255.0K estimate. Continuing Claims for Dec 30 2.09M vs 2.12M estimate.

The Energy Information Administration’s weekly report on natural gas stocks is schedule for release at 10:30 a.m. ET.
Atlanta Federal Reserve Bank President Dennis Lockhart is set to speak at 12:30 p.m. ET.
The Treasury will auction 30-year bonds at 1:00 p.m. ET.
St. Louis Federal Reserve Bank President Bullard will speak at 1:15 p.m. ET.
The U.S. Treasury budget report for December is schedule for release at 2:00 p.m. ET.
Data on money supply for the latest week will be released at 4:30 p.m. ET.
Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen is set to speak in Washington, D.C. at 7:00 p.m. ET.

BZ News Desk Focus

Delta Air Lines DAL Q4 EPS $0.82 vs $0.82 Est, Revenue $9.46B vs $9.40B Est
FuelCell Energy FCEL Q4 EPS $(0.38) vs $(0.37) Est, Revenue $24.5M vs $23.6M Est

Shares of SkyPeople Fruit Juice SPU spiked 28 percent on Wednesday after the company issued its 10-Q filing on time — but deeper reading of the document prompted steep drops from session highs. For the latter price movement, investors may have been reacting to specific details of the filing revealing the potential termination of a deal involving a SkyPeople subsidiary.

Sell-Side Themes

Pivotal downgraded several Internet and media stocks, notably lowering Disney DIS to Sell. Twitter TWTR, Salesforce CRM and CBS CBS were also downgraded.

Sell-Side's Most Noteworthy Calls

Jefferies downgraded Northrop Grumman NOC to Hold.
Morgan Stanley upgraded Merck MRK to Overweight.
Summit Redstone started Twilio TWLO at Buy.

Deal Talk

The FTC is working to approve the $9.4 billion merger of Walgreens WBA and Rite Aid RAD prior to the January 20 inauguration of Donald Trump, according to sources as reported by the New York Post late Tuesday. A source said it's clear that FTC Commissioner Maureen Ohlhausen won't block the deal. Fred's FRED agreed last month to acquire approximately 900 Rite Aid Stores, as a prerequisite of getting regulators to approve the deal.

In The News

The words of President-elect Donald Trump have a Midas-ian touch. Throughout Trump's speech Wednesday, comments aimed at particular industries and corporations corresponded with spikes in relevant stocks. Pharmaceuticals, biotech firms, cybersecurity companies, the indices of entire foreign markets — hardly anything emerged from the address untouched.

Shares of Mylan MYL fell sharply Wednesday, after news broke that the EpiPen was being dropped from Cigna's CI coverage list. As of January 7, Mylan's Epipen was dropped from Cigna’s prescription drug list. In mid-December, Mylan introduced a generic EpiPen that would cost $300, a near 50 percent discount to the regular version.

Apple AAPL is planning to build a significant new business in original television shows and movies, a move that could make it a bigger player in Hollywood and offset slowing sales of iPhones and iPads.

Blogosphere

PC makers need a reality check: "Global PC shipments fell 5.7 percent last year because ... well, you know why: Fewer people want to buy a PC.It really is as simple as that. Analysts can slice and dice the numbers to try to explain every twist and turn in the industry's demise, but Occam's Razor applies."

-

-

-

-

-

-

-

-

-

-

-

-

-

-