The Market In 5 Minutes: LitePay-Litecoin, Comcast-Sky, Economic Data

IN THE NEWS

Litecoin has mostly avoided the sell-off in other top cryptocurrencies in the past week ahead of Monday's launch of LitePay: Link

The pharmaceutical industry is lobbying to reverse part of the recent Congressional spending bill that shifted a $10-billion consumer aid burden from the federal government to manufacturers: Link

Comcast Corp. CMCSA on Tuesday made a tentative £22.1 billion ($30.9 billion) offer for Sky PLC, topping a rival bid from 21st Century Fox Inc. FOXA to consolidate ownership of the U.K. broadcaster and moving to peel away one of the most attractive overseas assets that Walt Disney Co. DIS has agreed to buy from Fox: Link $

Dividends are on the rise when investors have fewer reasons to buy the stocks that pay them out: Link $

Beijing, a major hub for artificial intelligence and semiconductors in China, is touting a new list of incentives to try and bait foreign talent for its equivalent of Silicon Valley in the Chinese capital: Link

Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin will spare the department’s markets room from an internal push to shutter or outsource an operation that was the agency’s nerve center as it tried to contain the 2008 financial crisis: Link

Oil traded near a three-week high after a supply disruption in Libya and as investors await U.S. inventory data: Link

ECONOMIC DATA

• USA Goods Trade Balance for Jan -$74.40B vs -$72.30B Est; Prior -$72.26B
• USA Core Durable Goods Orders (MoM) for Jan -0.30% vs 0.40% Est; Prior 0.70%
• USA Wholesale Inventories (MoM) for Jan 0.30% vs 0.30% Est; Prior 0.40%
• Redbook Reports US Retail Sales During First 3 Weeks Down 0.6% MoM, Up 3.2% YoY
• Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell is set to speak in Washington at 8:30 a.m. ET.
• The Conference Board’s Consumer Confidence Index for February will be released at 10:00 a.m. ET.
• Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell will testify before the House of Representatives' Committee on Financial Services in Washington D.C. at 10:00 a.m. ET.
• The Richmond Fed manufacturing index for February is schedule for release at 10:00 a.m. ET.
• The Treasury will auction 4-and 52-week bills at 11:30 a.m. ET.
• Data on farm prices for January will be released at 3:00 p.m. ET.

ANALYST RATINGS

• KBW upgraded Raymond James Financial RJF from Market Perform to Outperform
• Barclays upgraded Mammoth Energy TUSK from Equal-Weight to Overweight
• Stifel downgraded Akcea Therapeutics AKCA from Buy to Hold
• Canaccord downgraded Badger Meter BMI from Hold to Sell

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.