MORNING COFFEE

Oil Continues Its Rise. With fighting between government troops and rebels intensifying in Libya, oil was sent above $106 per barrel. Traders fear a spread of violence throughout the Middle East and North Africa regions and a protracted suspension of oil production and export from Libya. Occurring to Citigroup analysts expect "output disruption, or at least the threat of, will support a fear premium for the rest of 2011." Crude futures today stand at  $106.57 up +2.1%. (7:00 ET).

Moody’s Downgrades Greece. Moody's cut Greece's credit rating again, this time three notches to B1 with a negative outlook which is “highly speculative.”  The Greek finance ministry said the downgrade was completely unjustified.

Upgrades

CA Tech (CA): Oppenheimer raised their rating from Perform to Outperform and placed a target price of $29.00 on the company.

Downgrades

Molson Coors Brewing (TAP): Argus lowered their rating from Buy to Hold.

Coverage Reiterated/Price Target Changed

CME Group (CME): Stifel Nicolaus reiterated their Buy rating and raised their target price from $330.00 to $360.00.

OmniVision (OVTI): OmniVision reiterated their Outperform rating and raised their target price from $40.00 to $50.00.

Earning Reports

James River Coal (JRCC): Reported EPS of $0.93 beating estimates by +$0.67.

Madison Square Garden (MSG): Reported EPS of $0.42 missing estimates by -$0.01.

·         Futures at 7:00: Dow +0.3%. S&P +0.3%. Nasdaq +0.5%. Crude +2.1% to $106.64. Gold +0.9% to $1441.30.

·         Europe: London +0.7%. Paris +0.2%. Frankfurt +0.6%.

·         Asia: Japan -1.8%  to 10505. Hong Kong -0.4% to 23313. China +1.9% to 2997. India -1.4% to 18223.