MORNING COFFEE

Heath Bill Passes House. In late night vote the House of Representatives approved the largest healthcare overhaul in four decades by a vote of 219-212. The bill failed to get a single Republican vote. The bill is a mixed bag for insurers, who stand to gain over 20 million new customers but further reduces government reimbursements to the industry.  The reduced reimbursements could be passed on through higher insurance cost. Pharmaceutical companies, emerge as the clear winner from the bill.

Lawsuits ready to be filed.  Currently 35-37 state attorney generals are ready to file lawsuits over the Health Care bill as soon as it is signed into law by President Obama.  The legal challenges say that the bill is unconstitutional, because it infringes on states right and requires citizens to purchase insurance and fines them if they do not.

IMF Warnes About Debt. IMF official John Lipsky issued a grim prognosis for the world's wealthiest nations warning the debt-to-GDP ratio for five of the G-7 countries (Germany and Canada were excluded) will approach or exceed 100% by 2014. In a statement he said, the rising debt "could undermine confidence in the economic recovery."

Tiffany (TIF): Reported Q4 EPS of $1.09 missing estimated by -$0.04 on revenue of $981.4 million.

Williams-Sonoma (WSM): Reported Q4 EPS of $0.86 beating estimates by +0.12 on revenue of $1.1 billion. 

Upgrades

Boeing (BA):  Oppenheimer raised their rating from Underperform to Outperform and placed a target price of $80.00 on the company.

Downgrades

VeriSign (VRSN): Oppenheimer lowered their rating from Outperform to Perform.

Jack In The Box (JACK): JP Morgan lowered their rating from Overweight to Neutral.

Coverage Initiated

MasterCard (MA): Argus initiated coverage with a Buy rating and a target price of $300.00.

Hansen Natural (HANS): Standpoint Research initiated coverage with a Buy rating and a target price of $54.00.

Imax (IMAX): Barrington Research initiated coverage with a Outperform rating and a target price of $20.00.

Coverage Reiterated/Price Target Changed

ConAgra (CAG): Credit Suisse reiterated their Neutral rating and raised their target price from $24.00 to $27.00.

Walt Disney (DIS): Credit Suisse reiterated their Outperform rating and raised their target price from $36.00 to $38.00.

Boeing (BA): Broadpoint AmTech reiterated their Buy rating and raised their target price from $76.00 to $100.00.

·         Futures: Dow -0.6%. S&P -0.8%. Nasdaq -0.6%. Crude -1% to $79.84. Gold -0.3% to $1104.30.

·         Asia: Nikkei +0.8% to 10825. Hang Seng -2.0% to 20933. Shanghai +0.2% to 3075. BSE -0.9% to 17411.

·         Europe: London -1% to 5594. Paris -1% to 3885. Frankfurt-0.9% to 5929.