MORNING COFFEE

EU Economy Continues To Slow. The European Union's statistics agency Eurostat reported that the Euro-zones economic output fell 0.2% in the second quarter from the first. Five EU nations are in recession.  They are Cyprus, Greece, Portugal, Spain and Italy.  All of the countries except Italy have requested a bailout. 

The largest EU economy, which is Germany’s, grew by 0.3% in the second quarter beating economist estimates.  Frances economy remained stagnate for the third straight quarter but still managed not to fall into recession.

The largest declines were seen by Portugal which declined 1.2% Finland 1.0% and Italy which declined 0.7%.  Greece’s economy fell 6.2% year-to-year.

Upgrades

Elan (ELN): UBS raised their rating from Neutral to Buy.

Downgrades

Wendy's (WEN): KeyBanc Capital Markets lowered their rating from Hold to Underweight and placed a target price of $4.00 on the company.

Expedia (EXPE): Stifel Nicolaus lowered their rating from Buy to Hold.

Groupon (GRPN): The Benchmark Company lowered their rating from Buy to Hold and lowered their target price from $20.00 to $7.00.

Groupon (GRPN): Citigroup lowered their rating from Buy to Neutral and lowered their target price from $19.00 to $9.00.

Coverage Initiated

KAYAK (KYAK): Stifel Nicolaus initiated coverage with a Hold rating.

Earning Reports

Dick's Sporting Goods (DKS): Reported EPS of $0.65 beating estimates by +$0.02.

Estee Lauder (EL): Reported EPS of $0.17 beating estimates by +$0.01.

Home Depot (HD): Reported EPS of $1.01 beating estimates by +$0.03.

Saks (SKS): Reported EPS of -$0.05 beating estimates by +$0.04.

TJX (TJX): Reported EPS of $0.56 beating estimates by +$0.01.

Markets:

Futures at 7:00: Dow +0.1%. S&P +0.1%. Nasdaq +0.1%. Crude +0.2% to $92.90. Gold +0.1% to $1614.00.

Europe: London +0.4%. Paris +0.2%. Frankfurt +0.7%. 

Asia: Japan +0.5%. Hong Kong +1.1%. China +0.3%. India +0.6%.