The Market In 5 Minutes

IN THE NEWS

BENZINGA

United Continental Holdings Inc UAL CEO Oscar Munoz, under fire after a screaming and bloodied physician was dragged off an overbooked flight, finally apologized to the man on Tuesday after earlier blaming him for the whole mess: Link

Many might have been surprised to see United's stock actually rose Monday, although shares fell Tuesday: Link

The financial space, which capitalized on President Donald Trump's election, banking on his promise of deregulation, has had a lukewarm first quarter. The Financial Select Sector SPDR Fund XLF is up merely 0.9 percent compared to a 5.29 percent advance by the S&P 500: Link

Cyber attacks are commonplace in the 21st century, and as the international battlefield becomes increasingly virtual, self-defense requires a relatively new skillset: coding: Link

THE WALL STREET JOURNAL

U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov met Wednesday in Moscow, amid a confrontation between the Trump administration and Russia over recent U.S. strikes on Syria and the fate of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad: Link

The White House’s top spokesman issued a rare apology on Tuesday after saying that Syrian President Bashar al-Assad committed atrocities worse than Nazi leader Adolf Hitler, because the man whose genocidal regime instigated a world war and killed millions of people didn’t use chemical weapons: Link

President Donald Trump promised “some very pleasant surprises” to come on the North American Free Trade Agreement, in a gathering with U.S. chief executives in which he also said he wants to overhaul the federal government’s computer systems to make them more secure and up-to-date: Link

REUTERS

Chinese President Xi Jinping called for a peaceful resolution of rising tension on the Korean peninsula in a telephone conversation with U.S. President Donald Trump on Wednesday, as a U.S. aircraft carrier strike group steamed towards the region: Link

Bankruptcy for Puerto Rico is looking ever more likely as the clock ticks down toward a May 1 deadline to restructure $70 billion in debt, ramping up uncertainty for anyone betting on returns from the island's widely held U.S. municipal bonds: Link

BLOOMBERG

Education Secretary Betsy DeVos on Tuesday rolled back an Obama administration attempt to reform how student loan servicers collect debt: Link

When Tim Cook, Sheryl Sandberg, Jeff Bezos and other high-profile technology chiefs sat down with Donald Trump after the election, there was a less familiar face in their midst: Oracle ORCL's Safra Catz: Link

THE WASHINGTON POST

The FBI obtained a secret court order last summer to monitor the communications of an adviser to presidential candidate Donald Trump, part of an investigation into possible links between Russia and the campaign, law enforcement and other U.S. officials said: Link

ECONOMIC DATA

• US MBA mortgage market applications 1.5% vs -1.6% prior
• USA Export Prices (MoM) for Mar 0.20% vs 0.10% Est; USA Import Prices (MoM) for Mar -0.20% vs -0.20% Est
• The Energy Information Administration’s weekly report on petroleum inventories is schedule for release at 10:30 a.m. ET.
• The Treasury will auction 10-year notes at 1:00 p.m. ET.
• The U.S. Treasury budget data for March is schedule for release at 2:00 p.m. ET.

ANALYST RATINGS

• Susquehanna upgraded PepsiCo PEP from Neutral to Positive
• Raymond James upgraded Harley-Davidson HOG from Underperform to Market Perform
• Stifel Nicolaus upgraded Lululemon Athletica LULU from Hold to Buy
• Rafferty Capital Markets downgraded Wells Fargo WFC from Hold to Sell
• JP Morgan downgraded Tractor Supply TSCO from Overweight to Neutral
• Oppenheimer downgraded Avinger AVGR from Outperform to Perform

This 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. To get the full version of this note every morning, click here or email minutes@benzinga.com.