The Market In 5 Minutes: Indexes Just Below All-Time Highs

Below 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. Apply for daily AM access by clicking here or email minutes@benzinga.com.

Macro Focus

The major U.S. equity averages spent most of Thursday in negative territory before a late-day rally pushed the Dow, S&P and Nasdaq all into the green by the close. After a selloff on Tuesday, stocks remain just below all-time high levels.

The release of minutes from the Fed's July policy meeting showed that the central bank is committed to keeping its options open and no consensus has been reached about the timing of another rate increase.

USA Initial Jobless Claims for Aug 12 262.0K vs 265.0K consensus estimate. USA Continuing Claims for Aug 5 2.17M vs 2.14K consensus estimate.
New York Federal Reserve Bank President William Dudley is set to speak in New York at 10:00 a.m. ET.
The index of leading indicators for July is schedule for release at 10:00 a.m. ET.
The Energy Information Administration’s weekly report on natural gas stocks is schedule for release at 10:30 a.m. ET.
San Francisco Federal Reserve Bank President John Williams is set to speak in Anchorage, Alaska at 4:00 p.m. ET.
Data on money supply for the recent week will be released at 4:30 p.m. ET.
Dallas Federal Reserve Bank President Robert Kaplan will speak in Dallas at 8:00 p.m. ET.

BZ News Desk Focus

Wal Mart WMT Shows Q2 Adj. EPS $1.07 vs $1.02 Est., Sales $120.9B vs $120.2B Est.; Raises Outlook
NetApp NTAP Reports Q1 Adj. EPS $0.46 vs $0.36 Est., Sales $1.29B vs $1.26B Est.
Cisco Systems CSCO Reports Q2 EPS $0.63 vs. Est. $0.60, Rev. $12.64B vs. Est. $12.57B
L Brands LB Reports Q2 Adj. EPS $0.70 vs. Est. $0.59, Rev. $2.89B vs. Est. $2.86B
Hormel Foods HRL Reports Q3 EPS $0.36 vs $0.35 Est., Sales $2.3B vs $2.26B Est.

Sell-Side Themes

Deutsche Bank stated coverage on 9 workforce solution companies, with On Assignment ASGN and Robert Half RHI getting Buy ratings.

Sell-Side's Most Noteworthy Calls

Evercore downgraded Twitter TWTR to Sell.
Morgan Stanley downgraded Ambev ABEV to Equal-Weight.
Evercore upgraded Priceline PCLN to Buy.
Morgan Stanley upgraded Kinder Morgan KMI to Overweight.
Maxim initiated coverage on Digital Ally DGLY at Buy.

Deal Talk

Gannett GCI has privately sweetened its bid for Tronc TRNC , people familiar with the matter told Wall Street Journal, hoping to overcome resistance to a sale from the parent of the Chicago Tribune and Los Angeles Times. Details of the new overture, which comes after Tronc rejected a prior bid of $15 a share, couldn’t be learned. Tronc is expected to respond by the end of the week.

Retrophin, the pharmaceutical company founded by controversial entrepreneur Martin Shkreli, is considering the acquisition of Raptor Pharmaceutical RPTP to boost growth in treatments for rare diseases, people familiar with the matter told Bloomberg. No final agreement has been reached and the companies could decide against a deal, the people said. Raptor, which has a market value of about $589 million, has also attracted interest from other drugmakers.

In The News

The death toll from the Louisiana flooding has risen to 13. Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson will review the federal government's response to the flooding, which has prompted 70,000 people to register for individual assistance. More than 9,000 have filed flood insurance claims.

About 40,000 homes have been affected by the flooding -- which Gov. John Bel Edwards has called "unprecedented" -- that hit the Baton Rouge and Lafayette areas. And some 8,000 people were in shelters as President Barack Obama declared a state of emergency in the area.

New details of the $400 million U.S. payment to Iran earlier this year depict a tightly scripted exchange specifically timed to the release of several American prisoners held in Iran. U.S. officials wouldn’t let Iranians take control of the money until a Swiss Air Force plane carrying three freed Americans departed from Tehran on January 17.

Blogosphere

"Will the next $2,618,907,150,799 be added to or removed from the U.S. stock market? Nobody would answer such a ridiculous question, and yet, there are so many who wouldn’t think twice to opine on whether the next twenty percent ($2.6 trillion) move for U.S. stocks is up or down."

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