Morning Coffee Pre-Market Wall Street News

Fed News Sends World Markets Higher. Yesterday the Federal Reserve unexpectedly announced that it would keep its monetary stimulus policy unchanged.  The news sent world stock markets and commodity prices higher. The Fed will maintain its asset purchase program of $85 billion a month instead of tapering off the program.  Economists have expected a $10 billion monthly reduction in the program.

Rick Paler President of RL Paler Investment Advisors, LLC said “The Fed news should help the stock market and lower mortgage rates going forward, but also indicates the Fed is still worried about the economy.”

Upgrades:

AOL (AOL): Topeka raised their rating from Hold to Buy and placed a target price of $43.00 on the company. Pre-market: 35.45 +1.08 (3.14%)

Diageo PLC (DEO): Bernstein raised their rating from Market Perform to Outperform. Pre-market: 134.07 +2.80 (2.13%)

Groupon (GRPN): Stifel raised their rating from Hold to Buy and placed a target price of $16.00 on the company. Pre-market: 12.02 +0.47 (4.07%)

Travelers Cos. (TRV): FBR Capital raised their rating from Market Perform to Outperform and raised their target price from $84.00 to $94.00.

Time Warner (TWX): Morgan Stanley raised their rating from Equal Weight to Overweight and raised their target price to $72.00. Pre-market: 64.35 +1.01 (1.59%)

Downgrades:

FedEx (FDX): Goldman Sachs lowered their rating from Buy to Neutral and lowered their target price from $116.00 to $112.00. Pre-market: 115.06 -1.19 (-1.02%)

Walt Disney (DIS): Morgan Stanley lowered their rating from Overweight to Equal Weight and lowered their target price to $70.00. Pre-market: 66.45 -0.66 (-0.98%)

Coverage Initiated:

Amazon.com (AMZN): CRT Capital initiated coverage with a Buy rating and target price of $350.00. Pre-market: 312.40 +0.37 (0.12%)

Cardinal Health (CAH): Sterne Agee initiated coverage with a Neutral rating and target price of $48.00.

Cisco Systems (CSCO): Credit Suisse initiated coverage with an Underperform rating and target price of $21.00. Pre-market: 24.56 -0.24 (-0.95%)

Google (GOOG): CRT Capital initiated coverage with a Buy rating and target price of $1090.00. Pre-market: 905.70 +2.38 (0.26%)

LinkedIn (LNKD): CRT Capital initiated coverage with a Buy rating and target price of $302.00. Pre-market: 252.00 +2.42 (0.97%)

Netflix (NFLX): CRT Capital initiated coverage with a Fair Value rating. Pre-market: 307.25 +0.33 (0.11%)

Oracle (ORCL): William Blair initiated coverage with a Market Perform rating. Pre-market: 33.66 -0.21 (-0.62%)

Quest Diagnostics (DGX): Craig-Hallum initiated coverage with a Buy rating and target price of $74.00.

Yahoo! (YHOO): CRT Capital initiated coverage with a Fair Value rating. Pre-market: 30.52 +0.09 (0.28%)

Zillow (Z): CRT Capital initiated coverage with a Fair Value rating.

Earning Reports:

ConAgra (CAG): Reported EPS of $0.37 in-line with estimates. Pre-market: 31.69 -0.38 (-1.18%)

Oracle (ORCL): Reported EPS of $0.59 beating estimates by +$0.03. Pre-market: 33.66 -0.21 (-0.62%)

Rite Aid (RAD): Reported EPS of $0.03 beating estimates by +$0.07. Pre-market: 4.17 +0.46 (12.40%)

Scholastic Corp (SCHL): Reported EPS of -0.90 missing estimates by -$0.28.

Steelcase (SCS): Reported EPS of $0.24 missing estimates by -$0.02.

Markets: 
Futures at 8:09: Dow +0.14%. S&P +0.21%. Nasdaq +0.23%. Crude +0.7% to $108.40. Gold +4.76% to $1369.70. U.S. 10 Year -3.32 2.704%.

Europe: London +1.40%. Paris +0.86%. Frankfurt +0.99%. 

Asia: Japan +1.80% to 14766. Hong Kong +1.67% to 23502. China, Closed. India +3.43% to 20607.