MORNING COFFEE

BlackRock To Be Added To S&P Index. BlackRock Inc. (BLK) is scheduled to be added to the S&P 500 Index on Friday.  The company will be replacing Genzyme (GENZ) which is scheduled to be acquired by Sanofi-Aventis' (SNY). The news has BlackRock shares up in the Pre-market.  Pre-market: 196.65 +10.15 (5.44%)

Downgrades

EOG Resources (EOG): Ticonderoga lowered their rating from Buy to Neutral.

Lennar (LEN): Ticonderoga lowered their rating from Buy to Neutral.

Coverage Initiated

OfficeMax (OMX): Caris & Company initiated coverage with a Buy rating and target price of $17.00.

Best Buy (BBY): Caris & Company initiated coverage with an Above Average rating and target price of $36.00.

RadioShack (RSH): Caris & Company initiated coverage with an Average rating and target price of $16.00.

Gamestop (GME): Caris & Company initiated coverage with a Buy rating and target price of $30.00.

Coverage Reiterated/Price Target Changed

Apollo Group (APOL): RBC Capital Markets reiterated their Sector Perform rating and lowered their target price from $45.00 to $42.00.

Earning Reports

Family Dollar Stores (FDO): Reported FQ2 EPS of $0.98 beating estimates by +$0.01 on revenue of $2.26 billion, in-line with estimates. Pre-market: 53.40 +1.00 (1.91%)

·         Futures at 7:00: Dow +0.4%. S&P +0.5%. Nasdaq +0.65%. Crude -0.5% to $104.28. Gold +0.2% to $1419.

·         Europe: London +0.6%. Paris +0.9%. Frankfurt +1.6%.

·         Asia: Japan +2.6% to 9709. Hong Kong +1.7% to 23451. China -0.1% to 2956. India +0.9% to 19290.