TODAY'S PRIMER
Peter Schacknow, Senior Producer, CNBC Breaking News Desk
Wall Street has a chance to accomplish a relative rarity today: of the past six times that the S&P 500 has started the week with a loss of 1 percent or more, it’s only finished the week higher once.
Ahead of Friday’s opening bell, the S&P 500 is up 0.26 percent for the week, as investors brace for the potential impact of this weekend’s Greek elections. Reflecting the market’s uncertainty, the S&P 500 and Nasdaq have alternated between gains and losses for the past seven sessions.
Today marks "quadruple witching day" on Wall Street, featuring the simultaneous expiration of various futures and options contracts. It occurs on the third Friday of the third month of each quarter
Economic reports out this morning include the Federal Reserve’s May report on industrial production and factory capacity utilization at 9:15am ET. Economists predict a 0.1 percent rise in industrial production following April’s 1.1 percent increase, while they expect capacity utilization to remain unchanged at 79.2 perdent.
At 9:55am ET, the University of Michigan’s preliminary June consumer sentiment index is expected to come in at 77.0, down from the final May reading of 79.3.
Today’s earnings calendar is completely blank, leaving investors to look ahead to key reports next week from companies like FedEx (FDX), Oracle (ORCL), Discover Financial (DFS) and Adobe Systems (ADBE).
Human Genome Sciences (HGSI) is a stock to watch today, as it sets a July 16 deadline for takeover bids. It’s also urging hostile bidder GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) – which has a $2.6 billion offer on the table – to join a friendly bidding process. Human Genome has already rejected the $13/share offer as inadequate.
Videogame makers like Electronic Arts (EA) and Activision Blizzard (ATVI) also make our watch list today, following NPD Group’s report showing video hardware and software sales down 28 percent in May compared to the same month a year ago. NPD cites a shortage of new software titles as a primary reason for the drop.
The battle between Wynn Resorts (WYNN) and Japanese tycoon Kazuo Okada is escalating, as Okada files a preliminary injunction to protect his stake in the casino operator. Earlier this year, Wynn forcibly bought back the stake at a steep discount, after claiming Okada had engaged in improper activities.
Business software producer Yammer has agreed to sell itself to Microsoft (MSFT) for more than $1 billion, according to the Wall Street Journal, which says it’s not yet clear when the deal will be finalized. It was reported earlier in the week that Microsoft and Yammer were in discussions about a deal.
Facebook (FB) is reportedly set to file a motion to consolidate shareholder lawsuits against it over its troubled initial public offering, according to the New York Times. The paper says Facebook is expected to place at least some of the blame against Nasdaq
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