MORNING COFFEE

Attorney General Eric Holder to Face Contempt Vote. After over a year of stonewalling, Attorney General Eric Holder had one last meeting with Rep. Darrell Issa, Chairman of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform and once again he didn’t produce the documents subpoenaed by the committee.  Prior to the meeting Rep. Issa also requested a list of the documents that the Justice Departed didn’t want to produce, saying that they were not relevant to the investigation.  Eric Hold also refused to produce a list of those documents.

The committee has been investigating Fast & Furious which allowed guns to be purchased illegally and then allowed the drug cartels to bring the guns illegally into Mexico be used in their war against the Mexican government.  Many of the weapons from Fast & Furious have found at some of the bloodiest crime scenes.

The entire program was reviled after a whistleblower from Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives came forward when one of the Fast & Furious guns was used to kill U.S. Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry.

Some believe that the Fast & Furious was designed by the White House as a way to sway public opinion against guns so the government could ban or severely change the current gun laws. To back their opinion, those that believe this point out that Attorney General Eric Holder in a speech said we need to “brainwash people into thinking about guns in a vastly different way”. President Obama also told Sarah Brady from the Brady Campaign, an anti-gun organization, that he was working “under the radar” on gun control.  Additionally, President Obama used Fast & Furious to force what some believe is an illegal gun registration scheme upon U.S. citizens in Texas, California, Arizona and New Mexico do to their proximity to Mexico.

Rep. Darrell Issa and the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform will meet today at 10:00AM ET.  Barring a last-minute document dump from Attorney General Eric Holder, lawmakers will vote on contempt of Congress charges following debate.  


Lockheed Martin Fears Tax/Spending Cut Bomb. 

Lockheed Martin (LMT) CEO Bob Stevens warned that Lockheed may face hundreds of millions of dollars in business claims from suppliers if the defense spending cuts take effect in January. He went on to say that the near-term industry horizon is "completely obscured by a fog of uncertainty," calling it a "fiction" that the U.S. defense industry could survive the cuts.

Recently even defense secretary Leon Panetta testified before the Senate referring to the $500 billion in defense spending cuts said "It was designed as a meat ax. It was designed to be a disaster. Because the hope was, because it's such a disaster, that Congress would respond and do what was right. And so I'm just here to tell you, yes, it would be a disaster," Panetta said. In prior testimony he also said that the sweeping cuts could weaken the military substantially, and invite "aggression" abroad which could lead to war. 

Upgrades

Choice Hotels (CHH): Robert W. Baird raised their rating from Underperform to Neutral and raised their target price from $36.00 to $38.00.

Downgrades

Cirrus Logic (CRUS): Needham lowered their rating from Strong Buy to Buy and maintained their target price of $35.00. Pre-market: 30.12 -0.22 (-0.73%)

Coverage Initiated

United Health (UNH): Cantor Fitzgerald initiated coverage with a Buy rating and target price of $70.00. After Hours: 60.24 -0.02 (-0.04%)

Coverage Reiterated/Price Target Changed

Google (GOOG): The Benchmark Company reiterated their Hold rating and lowered their target price from $650.00 to $615.00. Pre-market: 579.00 -2.53 (-0.44%)

Earning Reports

Adobe Systems (ADBE): Reported EPS of $0.60 beating estimates by $0.01. Pre-market: 31.00 -1.89 (-5.75%)

Jabil Circuit (JBL): Reported EPS of $0.64 in-line with estimates. After Hours: 19.80 +0.38 (1.96%)

La-Z-Boy (LZB): Reported EPS of $0.37 beating estimates by +$0.11. After Hours: 13.70 +0.57 (4.34%)

Markets: 
Futures at 7:30: Dow +0.24%. S&P +0.24%. Nasdaq +0.38%. Crude -0.01% at to $84.02. Gold -0.60% to $1613.50.

Europe: London +0.58%. Paris -0.04%. Frankfurt +0.23%.

Asia: Japan +1.11%. Hong Kong +0.53%. China -0.34%. India +0.22%.