Citi analyst Scott Gruber sees a "slightly better" than 50/50 chance of Halliburton's (HAL) acquisition of Baker Hughes (BHI) winning approval given his view that Halliburton is willing to sell a substantial number of businesses. The analyst calls reports of the Justice Department suing to block the deal as "another negative headline." If the deal breaks, Baker Hughes by Q3 would likely have over $5B of cash versus $4B of debt, Gruber tells investors in a research note. He values Baker at $39 per share on a standalone basis. The stock closed yesterday down 5%, or $.09, to $39.38.

Unusual total active option classes on open include: ImmunityBio (IBRX), Halliburton (HAL), Redfin (RDFN), Nokia (NOK), Matterport (MTTR), General Motors (GM), UPS (UPS), Philip Morris (PM), PepsiCo (PEP), and General Electric (GE).

Reports Q1 revenue $5.8B, consensus $5.67B. "Halliburton delivered solid first quarter results that again demonstrated the power of our strategy and the strength of our execution. Activity in North America recovered from fourth-quarter lows, and our international business delivered its 11th consecutive quarter of year-on-year growth," commented Jeff Miller, Chairman, President and CEO. "Our customers' multi-year activity plans across markets and asset types confirms my confidence in the strength and duration of this upcycle. Halliburton demonstrated its commitment to shareholder returns in the first quarter and repurchased $250 million of common stock - a solid start to the year and a good benchmark for our expectations going forward," concluded Miller.