The Market In 5 Minutes: Walgreens-Rite Aid, Personal Income And Trump's Executive Order
Benzinga News Desk
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
Futures for the Dow Jones Industrial Average tumbled 45 points to 19,969.00, while the Standard & Poor’s 500 index futures fell 5.75 points to 2,283.25. Futures for the Nasdaq 100 index declined 14.75 points to 5,147.75.
Oil prices traded mixed as Brent crude futures dropped 0.07 percent to trade at $55.48 per barrel, while US WTI crude futures also rose 0.13 percent to trade at $53.24 a barrel.
USA Personal Income (MoM) for Dec 0.30% vs 0.40% Est; Personal Spending (MoM) for Dec 0.50% vs 0.50% Est
The pending home sales index for December is schedule for release at 10:00 a.m. ET.
The Dallas Fed manufacturing index for January will be released at 10:30 a.m. ET.
The Treasury is set to auction 3-and 6-month bills at 11:30 a.m. ET.
BZ News Desk Focus
Booz Allen Hamilton (NYSE: BAH) Reports Q3 Adj. EPS $0.38 vs $0.40 Est., Sales $1.4B vs $1.37B Est.
Most of the Dow Jones Industrial Average components have already reported their recent earnings, but there are a few more taking their turns in the spotlight this week, including pharmaceutical giants Merck (NYSE: MRK) and Pfizer (NYSE: PFE). Wall Street consensus forecasts call for earnings that are smaller than a year ago from both companies.
Neurotrope (OTC: NTRPD), a clinical stage biopharmaceutical company, may have found through its drug Bryostatin a unique solution to addressing Alzheimer's, one of the last major diseases with no cure. Benzinga recently spoke with CEO Dr. Susanne Wilke, ahead of her appearance at the Noble Financial Annual Investor Conference on January 30.
Sell-Side Themes
The market is readying itself for a slew of semiconductor earnings this week that comes amid secular declines in PC and tablet markets along with a saturating global smartphone unit growth. Canaccord Genuity analyst Matthew Ramsay's checks point to a solid channel and operating outlook for most of the companies in his coverage universe. The analyst expects modest low- to mid-single-digit overall semiconductor growth.
SunTrust and Needham both downgraded Regulus Therapeutics (NASDAQ: RGLS) after the company reported the continuation of RG-101 clinical hold.
Sell-Side's Most Noteworthy Calls
Baird downgraded Himax Technologies (NASDAQ: HIMX) to Neutral.
Morgan Stanley upgraded Disney (NYSE: DIS) to Overweight.
Goldman Sachs upgraded NetApp (NASDAQ: NTAP) to Buy.
Barclays started Stanley Black & Decker (NYSE: SWK) at Overweight.
Deal Talk
DHT Holdings (NYSE: DHT) announced it has received a non-binding, highly conditional proposal from Frontline (NYSE: FRO) to acquire all of the outstanding shares of common stock of DHT for $5.09 per share, in a stock-for-stock deal. Under the proposed terms of the offer, DHT shareholders would receive 0.725 of a Frontline share for each share of DHT.
Private equity firm Cerberus Capital could end up as the buyer for 865 Walgreens Boots Alliance (NASDAQ: WBA) drug stores and save the $9.7 billion merger with Rite Aid (NYSE: RAD), according to sources as reported by the New York Post on Friday. The FTC has expressed concerns over the viability of Fred's (NASDAQ: FRED) as a buyer for the stores. Cerberus, through Albertson's, submitted a higher offer than Fred's for the Walgreens stores.
Walgreens And Rite Aid Enter into Amendment and Extension to Merger Agreement; Parties Agreed To Reduce Price Of Each Rite Aid Stock To Maximum Of $7/Share And Minimum Of $6.50/Share; Walgreens To Divest 1,200 Rite Aid stores
In The News
President Donald Trump defended his executive order restricting immigration from seven Muslim-majority countries as his plan to tighten national security spawned legal challenges, congressional criticism, widespread protests and confusion at airports.
late last week, there was a fifth confirmed outbreak of avian influenza, or "bird flu" in the U.K. The H5N8 strain of the bird flu has spread from wild birds to farmed poultry in several areas of the U.K. The U.K. outbreak is one of 40 outbreaks of bird flu around the world since November. Earlier this month, an outbreak of the H7N8 strain of the virus was reported in a commercial turkey flock in Indiana. The world has been able to avoid a major bird flu poultry pandemic, but that hasn't kept financial markets from reacting to the scare. In May 2015, the bird flu scare led to an 87 percent spike in egg prices in less than two months.
Blogosphere
"OPEC's oil-market management and in particular its repeated attempts to raise prices have done more than any other single factor to boost U.S. oil production and set America on the road to some sort of energy independence, whatever that might be," writes Julian Lee. "Far from vilifying OPEC, U.S. senators should be erecting statues to the 13 men who are helping to 'make America great again.'"
As markets continue to break record highs, the echelon of premier finance sites in America continues to undergo deleterious drawdowns in their traffic.
