Morning Coffee Pre-Market Wall Street News

Jobless Claims Jump. The Labor Department reported that the number of Americans seeking unemployment benefits jumped 38,000 to a seasonally adjusted 368,000. The number was well above Wall Street estimates of only 345,000. The rising unemployment number comes just after the government reported that the Q4 GDP unexpectedly declined -0.1%.

Upgrades

JDS Uniphase (JDSU): Needham raised their rating from Hold to Buy and placed a target price of $18.00 on the company.

Downgrades

Facebook (FB): Stifel Nicolaus lowered their rating from Buy to Hold.

Facebook (FB): Citigroup lowered their rating from Buy to Neutral.

Facebook (FB): Jefferies       lowered their rating from Buy to Hold and lowered their target price from $32.00 to $30.00.

Research In Motion (RIMM): Evercore lowered their rating from Equal Weight to Underweight and placed a target price of $8.00 on the company.

Research In Motion (RIMM): Credit Suisse lowered their rating from Neutral to Underweight and lowered their target price from $11.00 to $10.00.

Coverage Reiterated/Price Target Changed

Kimberly-Clark (KMB): Argus reiterated their Buy rating and raised their target price from $92.00 to $98.00.

Qualcomm (QCOM): Sterne Agee reiterated their Buy rating and raised their target price from $71.00 to $74.00.

Qualcomm (QCOM): FBR Capital reiterated their Outperform rating and raised their target price from $77.00 to $79.00.

Earning Reports

Qualcomm (QCOM): Reported EPS of $1.26 beating estimates by +$0.14.

Altria (MO): Reported EPS of $0.55 beating estimates by +$0.01.

Ball Corp (BLL): Reported EPS of $0.64 missing estimates by -$0.01.

Colgate-Palmolive (CL): Reported EPS of $1.41 beating estimates by +$0.01.

Dow Chemical (DOW): Reported EPS of $0.33 missing estimates by -$0.03.

Hershey Foods (HSY): Reported EPS of $0.74 missing estimates by -$0.02.

MasterCard (MA): Reported EPS of $4.86 beating estimates by +$0.05.

Potash (POT): Reported EPS of $0.52 missing estimates by -$0.06.

Sherwin-Williams (SHW): Reported EPS of $1.12 missing estimates by -$0.03.

Tenneco (TEN): Reported EPS of $0.66 in-line with estimates.

UPS (UPS): Reported EPS of $1.32 missing estimates by -$0.06.

Markets: 
Futures at 9:10: Dow -0.01%. S&P -0.01%. Nasdaq -0.23%. Crude -0.35% to $97.60. Gold -0.50% to $1671.50.

Europe: London -0.38%. Paris -0.66%. Frankfurt -0.37%. 

Asia: Japan +0.22% to 11139. Hong Kong -0.39% to 23730. China +0.12% to 2385. India -0.55% to 19895.