Morning Coffee Pre-Market Wall Street News

American’s Outraged Over U.S. Budget Deal/Debt Agreement.

Congress approved a deal to fund the U.S. government, but only through January 15 and raise the debt limit not by a dollar amount but up until February 7. So in reality in a few months we could be facing another shutdown and the out of control spending continues. As the news circulated American became outraged that the temporary agreement was filled with $3 billion in pork spending.  The two most outrageous examples of the pork spending buried in the bill are $174,000 of taxpayers’ money going to the widow of the late Sen. Frank Lautenberg (D).  The Senator was one of the richest in D.C. and he left his wife a multimillionaire.  The other is the quadrupling of the funding for a boondoggle dam project on the Ohio River to nearly $3 billion.  

Upgrades:

Abbott Labs (ABT) S&P raised their rating from Hold *** to Buy ****.

AFLAC (AFL): The Research Team raised their rating from Hold to Accumulate.

Downgrades:

Bank of America (BAC): Raymond James lowered their rating from Strong Buy to Outperform.

Clorox (CLX): Morgan Stanley lowered their rating from Equal Weight to Underweight and placed a target price of $83.00 on the company.

Green Mountain Coffee Roasters (GMCR): Dougherty lowered their rating from Buy to Neutral.

KB Homes (KBH): Raymond James lowered their rating from Market Perform to Underperform.

Men’s Warehouse (MW): Stifel lowered their rating from Buy to Hold.

Standard Pacific (SPF): Raymond James lowered their rating from Outperform to Market Perform.

Stanley Black & Decker (SWK): Credit Suisse lowered their rating from Outperform to Neutral.

Stanley Black & Decker (SWK): Macquarie lowered their rating from Outperform to Neutral and placed a target price of $75.00 on the company.

Travelers Cos (TRV): Guggenheim lowered their rating from Neutral to Sell and placed a target price of $72.00 on the company.

Coverage Initiated:

Allergan (AGN): JMP Securities initiated coverage with an Outperform rating and target price of $110.00.

Salesforce.com (CRM): Argus initiated coverage with a Buy rating and target price of $63.00.

Earning Reports:

Baxter (BAX): Reported EPS of $1.19 in-line with estimates.

Ebay (EBAY): Reported EPS of $0.64 beating estimates by +$0.01.

Goldman Sachs (GS): Reported EPS of $2.88 beating estimates by +$0.25.

IBM (IBM): Reported EPS of $3.99 beating estimates by +$0.03.

Kinder Morgan (KMI): Reported EPS of $0.27 missing estimates by -$0.04.

Kinder Morgan Partners (KMP): Reported EPS of $0.51 missing estimates by -$0.10.

Noble Corp (NE): Reported EPS of $0.85 beating estimates by +$0.15.

PPG (PPG): Reported EPS of $2.44 beating estimates by +$0.09.

Snap-On (SNA): Reported EPS of $1.43 beating estimates by +$0.02.

UnitedHealth (UNH): Reported EPS of $1.53 in-line with estimates.

Verizon (VZ): Reported EPS of $0.77 beating estimates by +$0.03.

Markets: 
Futures at 6:20: Dow -0.35%. S&P -0.27%. Nasdaq -0.09%. Crude -0.5% to $101.77. Gold +1.9% to $1306.80.  U.S. 10 Year +12/32 to 2.622%.

Europe: London -0.32%. Paris -0.47%. Frankfurt -0.68%. 

Asia, Japan +0.83% to 14587. Hong Kong -0.57% to 23095. China -0.21% to 2189. India -0.64% to 20416. 

#RLPaler

Morning Coffee Pre-Market Wall Street News

World Markets Continue Decline. Stock markets worldwide are continuing to sell off. In China stocks fell -5.3%. In mid-day trading European markets are down -1% or more. U.S. stock futures are also looking at a lower opening this morning. Also caught in the wake of the selloff are commodities which are also lower. The sell off started last week when Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke said the Fed would end its QE policy by mid 2014. Bond prices are also getting hit bring the 10-year Treasury yield to a two-year high of 2.61%.

Upgrades:

Advanced Micro (AMD): FBR Capital raised their rating from Market Perform to Outperform and raised their target price from $3.00 to $5.50.

First Solar (FSLR): Maxim raised their rating from Sell to Hold. Pre-market: 42.10 +0.73 (1.76%)

Downgrades:

Allergan (AGN): Sun Trust lowered their rating from Buy to Neutral and lowered their target price from $115.00 to $102.00. Pre-market: 89.19 -3.51 (-3.79%)

Deere & Co (DE): JPMorgan lowered their rating from Neutral to Underweight and placed a target price of $76.00 on the company. Pre-market: 80.83 -1.64 (-1.99%)

Walgreens (WAG): Cantor Fitzgerald lowered their rating from Buy to Hold and placed a target price of $49.00 on the company. Pre-market: 48.20 -0.51 (-1.05%)

Coverage Initiated:

Coca-Cola (KO): Sun Trust initiated coverage with a Buy rating and target price of $47.00.

First Solar (FSLR): JPMorgan initiated coverage with an Overweight rating and target price of $64.00. Pre-market: 42.10 +0.73 (1.76%)

Pfizer (PFE): JPMorgan initiated coverage with an Overweight rating and target price of $33.00.

Sherwin-Williams (SHW): UBS initiated coverage with a Buy rating and target price of $215.00. Pre-market: 173.10 0.00 (0.00%)

Markets: 
Futures at 6:20: Dow -0.7%. S&P -0.7%. Nasdaq -0.5%. Crude -0.1% at $93.62. Gold -0.8% to $1281.90.

Europe: London -1.5%. Paris -1.4%. Frankfurt -0.9%. 

Asia: Japan -1.3% to 13063. Hong Kong -2.2% to 19814. China -5.3% to 1963. India -1.2% to 18541.