MORNING COFFEE

Gold Hits Record High. In overseas trading today, Gold prices have hit a new record high of $1,602 an ounce.  Traders concerned about sovereign debt problems in Europe and the U.S. have flocked into the metal in an attempt to hedge their portfolios.

Upgrades

EOG Resources (EOG): FBR Capital raised their rating from Market Perform to Outperform and placed a target price of $130.00 on the company. Pre-market: 102.34 +1.15 (1.14%)

Downgrades

Clorox (CLX): Oppenheimer lowered their rating from Perform to Underperform. Pre-market: 73.15 -1.40 (-1.88%)

Sunpower (SPWRA): Collins Stewart lowered their rating from Neutral to Sell and placed a target price of $15.00 on the company. Pre-market: 22.50 -0.24 (-1.06%)

Netflix (NFLX): Pacific Crest lowered their rating from Outperform to Sector Perform. Pre-market: 282.33 -4.60 (-1.60%)

LinkedIn (LNKD): JP Morgan lowered their rating from Overweight to Neutral and placed a target price of $85.00 on the company. Pre-market: 105.50 -4.47 (-4.06%)

Coverage Reiterated/Price Target Changed

Mattel (MAT): Wedbush reiterated their Neutral rating and raised their target price from $29.00 to $31.00. Pre-market: 27.45 +0.16 (0.59%)

SanDisk (SNDK): Stifel Nicolaus reiterated their Buy rating and lowered their target price from $72.00 to $63.00. Pre-market: 41.40 -0.22 (-0.53%)

FLIR Systems (FLIR): Needham reiterated their Buy rating and lowered their target price from $42.00 to $34.00. Pre-market: 28.84 -0.08 (-0.28%)

Citigroup (C): Oppenheimer reiterated their Outperform rating and lowered their target price from $55.00 to $53.00. Pre-market: 38.15 -0.23 (-0.60%)

Genuine Parts (GPC): Ticonderoga reiterated their Buy rating and raised their target price from $61.00 to $64.00.

Earning Reports

Check Point Software (CHKP): Reported Q2 EPS of $0.68 Beating estimates by +$0.02 on revenue of $300.6 million. Pre-market: 58.35 +1.77 (3.13%)

Halliburton (HAL): Reported Q2 EPS of $0.81 beating estimates by +$0.08 on revenue of $5.3 billion. Pre-market: 53.83 +0.75 (1.41%)

Charles Schwab (SCHW): Reported EPS of $0.20 in line with estimates. Pre-market: 15.28 +0.27 (1.80%)

Hasbro (HAS): Reported EPS of $0.42 beating estimates by +$0.04 Pre-market: 41.38 +0.01 (0.02%)

·         Futures at 8:58: Dow -0.61%. S&P -0.65%. Nasdaq -0.57%. Crude -1.16% to $96.15. Gold +0.49% to $1,598.20.

·         Europe: London -1.02%. Paris -1.29%. Frankfurt -0.99%.

·         Asia: Japan closed. Hong Kong -0.32% to 21805. China -0.12% to 2817. India -0.30% to 18507.