MORNING COFFEE

ADP Employment Report Beats Estimates.  ADP reported that private-sector payrolls rose 163,000 in July, with small businesses and service sector providing most of the gains.  Wall Street economist had estimated that only 125,000 jobs would be created.  The June numbers were revised down, to 172,000 from a prior estimate of 176,000. The report comes ahead of Fridays Labor Department's jobs numbers on both private- and public-sector payrolls. Economists are looking for the Labor Department to report that 100,000 nonfarm jobs were created in July and for the unemployment rate to stay at a high 8.2%.

Upgrades

Wal-Mart (WMT): Deutsche Bank raised their rating from Sell to Hold and raised their target price from $55.00 to $68.00. Pre-market: 74.50 +0.07 (0.09%)

Downgrades

True Religion Apparel (TRLG): Caris lowered their rating from Buy to Above Average and lowered their target price from $38.00 to $32.00. Pre-market: 22.00 -4.24 (-16.16%)

BMC Software (BMC): Raymond James lowered their rating from Strong Buy to Outperform and lowered their target price from $49.00 to $45.00. Pre-market: 38.00 -1.60 (-4.04%)

BMC Software (BMC): Credit Suisse lowered their rating from Outperform to Neutral and lowered their target price from $45.00 to $40.00. Pre-market: 38.00 -1.60 (-4.04%)

Becton Dickinson (BDX): JPMorgan Chase lowered their rating from Neutral to Underweight and lowered their target price from $75.00 to $72.00.

BP PLC ADS (BP): Jefferies lowered their rating from Buy to Hold. Pre-market: 39.72 -0.18 (-0.45%)

Coverage Initiated

Boeing (BA): Imperial Capital resumed coverage with an In-line rating and target price of $82.00.

Earning Reports

Advisory Board (ABCO): Reported EPS of $0.31 in-line with estimates.

Allstate (ALL): Reported EPS of $0.86 beating estimates by +$0.29. Pre-market: 36.20 +1.90 (5.54%)

Con-way (CNW): Reported EPS of $0.74 beating estimates by +$0.06.

Electronic Arts (EA): Reported EPS of -$0.41 beating estimates by +$0.01. Pre-market: 11.55 +0.53 (4.81%)

Take-Two (TTWO): Reported EPS of -$1.16 missing estimates by -$0.51. Pre-market: 8.45 -0.33 (-3.76%)

Automatic Data (ADP): Reported EPS of $0.53 in-line with estimates. Pre-market: 56.00 -0.55 (-0.97%)

Burger King (BKW): Reported EPS of $0.14 in-line with estimates.

Comcast (CMCSA): Reported EPS of $0.50 beating estimates by +$0.02. Pre-market: 33.25 +0.70 (2.15%)

Harley-Davidson (HOG): Reported EPS of $1.07 beating estimates by +$0.02. Pre-market: 44.80 +1.57 (3.63%)

MasterCard (MA): Reported EPS of $5.65 beating estimates by +$0.07. Pre-market: 422.00 -14.57 (-3.34%)

Markets: 
Futures at 7:45: Dow +0.32%. S&P +0.26%. Nasdaq +0.42%. Crude +0.50% to $88.50. Gold +0.14% to $1612.70.

Europe: London +0.92%. Paris +0.78%. Frankfurt -0.20%. 

Asia: Japan -0.61%. Hong Kong +0.12%. China +0.94%. India +0.12%.