MORNING COFFEE

Muni Market Under Pressure. The municipal bond market is coming under growing pressure, as states attempt to refinance tens of billions of dollars of debt and investors are becoming leery of high state indebtedness. Yesterday a New Jersey agency cut the size of a bond issue by 40% and had to pay a higher rate than expected due to a lack of  demand. Additionally, the Vanguard Group also put on hold plans for three new muni bond funds, citing market conditions.

Upgrades

Alcoa (AA): Dahlman Rose raised their rating from Hold to Buy and placed a target price of $22.00 on the company.

Reliance Steel (RS): Dahlman Rose raised their rating from Hold to Buy and placed a target price of $63.00 on the company.

Downgrades

Coinstar (CSTR): Northland Securities lowered their rating from Outperform to Market Perform.

SAP AG (SAP): Jefferies lowered their rating from Buy to Hold.

Coverage Initiated

Royal Caribbean (RCL): Hudson Securities initiated coverage with a Buy rating and target price of $58.00.

Carnival (CCL): Hudson Securities initiated coverage with a Hold rating and target price of $56.00.

Taubman Centers (TCO): KeyBanc Capital Markets initiated coverage with a Hold rating.

Coverage Reiterated/Price Target Changed

Johnson & Johnson (JNJ): RBC Capital Markets reiterated their Sector Perform rating and lowered their target price from $62.00 to $60.00.

Applied Materials (AMAT):  Stifel Nicolaus reiterated their Buy rating and raised their target price from $15.00 to $16.00.

U.S. Steel (X): Dahlman Rose reiterated their Buy rating and raised their target price from $55.00 to $85.00.

Intel (INTC): Wedbush reiterated their Outperform rating and raised their target price from $24.00 to $27.00.

Intel (INTC): RBC Capital Markets reiterated their Sector Perform rating and lowered their target price from $24.00 to $27.00.

Earning Reports

JPMorgan (JPM): Reported Q4 EPS of $1.12 beating estimates by +$0.13 on revenue of $26.72 billion, up +6%.

Intel (INTC): Report Q4 EPS of $0.59 beating estimates by +$0.06 on revenue of $11.4 billion, up +8.4%.

·         Futures at 7:00: Dow -0.2%. S&P -0.2%. Nasdaq +0.05%. Crude -1.1% to $90.39. Gold -1.3% to $1368.80.

·         Europe: London -0.7%. Paris -0.2%. Frankfurt -0.3%.

·         Asia: Japan -0.9% to 10499. Hong Kong +0.2% to 24283. China -1.3% to 2791. India -1.7% to 18860.