Wednesday, December 18, 2013

Bitcoin Value Sinks. China’s largest Bitcoin exchange BTC China was forced to stop accepting deposits in the Chinese currency on Wednesday, sending the price of the virtual money crashing. By Wednesday evening, BTC was quoting Bitcoins at about 2,300 renminbi, or about $380, apiece a decline in price of nearly -40%.  According to reports, the People’s Bank of China and the Chinese central bank, met Monday with the country’s largest third-party payment processing companies and ordered them to stop all transactions involving digital currencies.

Upgrades:

Western Union (WU): Macquarie raised their rating from Neutral to Outperform. Pre-market: 16.90 +0.43 (2.61%)

Downgrades:

Jabil Circuits (JBL): Longbow lowered their rating from Buy to Neutral. Pre-market: 16.20 -3.52 (-17.85%)

Coverage Initiated:

Fresh Markets (TFM): Stephens initiated coverage with an Overweight and target price of $50.00.

Groupon (GRPN): Northland Securities initiated coverage with an Outperform rating. Pre-market: 10.81 +0.14 (1.31%)

Sprouts Farmers Market (SFM): Stephens initiated coverage with an Equal Weight and target price of $40.00.

Whole Foods Market (WFM): Stephens initiated coverage with an Equal Weight and target price of $61.00. Pre-market: 57.60 +0.29 (0.51%)

Earning Reports:

FedEx (FDX): Reported EPS of $1.57 missing estimates by -$0.08. Pre-market: 138.27 -0.82 (-0.59%)

General Mills (GIS): Reported EPS of $0.83 missing estimates by -$0.05. Pre-market: 48.25 -1.33 (-2.68%)

Jabil Circuits (JBL): Reported EPS of $0.51 missing estimates by -$0.03. Pre-market: 16.20 -3.52 (-17.85%)

VeriFone (PAY): Reported EPS of $0.27 beating estimates by +$0.01. Pre-market: 23.80 -1.20 (-4.80%)

Markets: 
Futures at 7:39: Dow +0.25%. S&P +0.14%. Nasdaq +0.11%. Crude +0.16% to $97.38. Gold +0.15% to $1232.00. U.S. 10 Year -8/32 to 2.873%
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Europe: London +0.27%. Paris +0.88%. Frankfurt +1.12%. 

Asia: Japan +2.02% to 15587.8. Hong Kong +0.32% to 23144. China -0.13% to 2148. India +1.20% 20860. 

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