MORNING COFFEE

Investors Flock To Gold On Geopolitical News.  Gold nearly hit its record high yesterday, due to the crises in the Middle East and Portugal default worries.  “The entire Middle East is spinning out of control with civil war in Libya, protest in Bahrain, Yemen and Oman, Hamas is firing rockets into Israel, Portugal seems to be on the verge of defaulting on their debt and in the U.S., there is speculation that the U.S. might extend its $600B bond purchase program following record low U.S. new-home sales.” Premarket $1,441.30 +0.2%.

Upgrades

Arctic Cat (ACAT): KeyBanc Capital Markets raised their rating from Hold to Buy and placed a target price of $18.00 on the company.

Red Hat (RHT): Robert W. Baird raised their rating from Neutral to Outperform and placed a target price of $50.00 on the company.

Downgrades

Bank of America (BAC): FBR Capital lowered their rating from Outperform to Market Perform and lowered their target price from $18.00 to $15.00.

Coverage Reiterated/Price Target Changed

General Mills (GIS): RBC Capital Markets reiterated their Outperform rating and raised their target price from $38.00 to $41.00.

Phillips-Van Heusen (PVH): Brean Murray reiterated their Buy rating and lowered their target price from $85.00 to $70.00.

Earning Reports

ConAgra (CAG): Reported EPS of $0.50 beating estimates by +$0.04.

Paychex (PAYX): Reported FQ3 EPS of $0.36 beating estimates by +$0.01 on revenue of $531 million, beating estimates by +$3 million.

Red Hat (RHT): Reported Q4 EPS of $0.26 beating estimates by +$0.04 on revenue of $245 million, beating estimates by +$8 million.

·     SAIC (SAI): Reported Q4 EPS of $0.36 beating estimates by +$0.07 on revenue of $2.77 billion, in-line

    with estimates.

·         Futures at 7:00: Dow +0.4%. S&P +0.6%. Nasdaq +0.7%. Crude +0.7% to $106.53. Gold +0.2% to $1441.30.

·         Europe: London +0.8%. Paris +0.6%. Frankfurt +0.7%.

·         Asia: Japan -0.1% to 9435. Hong Kong +0.4% to 22915. China -0.1% to 2947. India +0.8% to 18351.