Morning Coffee Pre-Market Wall Street News

Warren Buffet Bid For Stock Exchange. Warren Buffet CEO of Berkshire Hathaway had made an attempt to purchase the NYSE.  The bid was rejected in favor of ICE’s offer. NYSE Euronoext's (NYX) share of U.S. equity trading has fallen over the last decade from 82% to around 20% of U.S. trades.

Upgrades

Abercrombie & Fitch (ANF): BMO Capital raised their rating from Market Perform to Outperform and raised their target price from $44.00 to $61.00.

Genuine Parts (GPC): BB&T raised their rating from Hold to Buy.

Caterpillar (CAT): BMO Capital raised their rating from Market Perform to Outperform and raised their target price from $83.00 to $130.00.

Downgrades

Maximus (MMS): Sidoti lowered their rating from Buy to Neutral. Pre-market: 69.39 -0.78 (-1.11%)

VMware (VMW): Wunderlich lowered their rating from Buy to Hold and lowered their target price from $100.00 to $75.00. Several over companies also lowered their ratings. Pre-market: 79.41 -18.91 (-19.23%)

Stanley Black & Decker (SWK): Imperial Capital lowered their rating from Outperform to In-line and lowered their target price from $84.00 to $82.00. Pre-market: 76.09 -0.49 (-0.64%)

NCR Corp (NCR): Compass Point lowered their rating from Buy to Neutral and placed a target price of $30.00 on the company.

BMC Software (BMC): Cowen lowered their rating from Outperform to Neutral.    

      

Unilever (UN) (UL): Jefferies lowered their rating from Buy to Hold.

Coverage Initiated

Laboratory Corp (LH): Oppenheimer initiated coverage with a Perform rating.

Salesforce.com (CRM): Maxim initiated coverage with a Buy rating and target price of $200.00. Pre-market: 174.00 -4.07 (-2.29%)

Earning Reports

Boston Scientific (BSX): Reported EPS of $0.18 beating estimates by +$0.07. Pre-market: 6.95 +0.09 (1.31%)

Corning (GLW): Reported EPS of $0.34 beating estimates by +$0.01. Pre-market: 12.60 +0.45 (3.70%)

EMC (EMC): Reported EPS of $0.54 beating estimates by +$0.02. Pre-market: 24.00 -1.20 (-4.76%)

Ford (F): Reported EPS of $0.31 beating estimates by +$0.05. Pre-market: 13.57 -0.21 (-1.52%)

Harley-Davidson (HOG): Reported EPS of $0.31 in-line with estimates. Pre-market: 52.85 -0.35 (-0.66%)

Illinois Tool (ITW): Reported EPS of $0.89 missing estimates by -$0.01. Pre-market: 65.00 -0.44 (-0.67%)

Intl Paper (IP): Reported EPS of $0.69 beating estimates by +$0.04. Pre-market: 41.25 -0.87 (-2.07%)

Pfizer (PFE): Reported EPS of $0.47 beating estimates by +$0.03. Pre-market: 27.00 +0.16 (0.60%)

US Steel (X): Reported EPS of -$0.41 beating estimates by +$0.33. Pre-market: 24.11 +0.39 (1.64%)

Markets: 
Futures at 8:18: Dow -0.14%. S&P -0.24%. Nasdaq -0.21%. Crude +0.04% to $96.48. Gold +0.55% to $1662.00.

Europe: London +0.06%. Paris -0.30%. Frankfurt -0.22%. 

Asia: Japan +0.39% to 10867. Hong Kong -0.07% to 23655. China +0.53% to 2359. India -0.56% to 19991.