Morgan Stanley analyst Ole Slorer views yesterday's Bloomberg article suggesting Halliburton's (HAL) acquisition of Baker Hughes (BHI) faces antitrust hurdles in the U.S. as mostly noise. Slorer spoke with an antitrust expert and concluded the article summarized well known facts and came away with a more constructive view of the deal. The analyst said Halliburton's "exceptionally diligent" handling of the transaction has minimized risks. Slorer's team raised Halliburton's price target to $62 from $60 and Baker Hughes' to $88 from $86 and maintains Overweight ratings on both stocks.

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.