Morning Coffee Pre-Market Wall Street News

Muni Bond Funds Experience Exodus. Through Wednesday Municipal bond funds experienced outflows of over $1.2B since Detroit declared bankruptcy. This marks the ninth week in a row of net outflows that began after the Fed hinted at changing their current stimulus plan.  Yesterday in court Bankruptcy Judge Steven Rhodes suspended the lawsuits by the unions calling the Bankruptcy unconstitutional according to Michigan law. The spike in net outflows is due to the concern that there are many other large cities like Chicago and Los Angeles that are in the same financial position as Detroit.

Upgrades:

Advance Auto Parts (AAP): Deutsche Bank raised their rating from Hold to Buy and raised their target price from $82.00 to $92.00.

Campbell Soup (CPB): Credit Suisse raised their rating from Underperform to Neutral and raised their target price from $44.00 to $48.00.

L-3 Communications (LLL): Bank of America Merrill Lynch raised their rating from Underperform to Neutral and raised their target price from $73.00 to $97.00.

Tesla Motors (TSLA): Deutsche Bank raised their rating from Hold to Buy and raised their target price from $50.00 to $160.00.

Downgrades:

Bed Bath & Beyond (BBBY): BB&T lowered their rating from Buy to Hold.

Diamond Offshore (DO): Williams Capital lowered their rating from Buy to Hold and lowered their target price from $86.00 to $77.00.

Dolby Labs (DBL): Dougherty lowered their rating from Buy to Neutral.

Expedia (EXPE): Raymond James lowered their rating from Outperform to Market Perform.

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

Noble Energy (NBL): Johnson Rice lowered their rating from Focus List to Overweight.

Viacom (VIAB): Stifel lowered their rating from Buy to Hold.

Southwest Airlines (LUV): Raymond James lowered their rating from Outperform to Market Perform.

Teradyne (TER): Pacific Crest lowered their rating from Outperform to Sector Perform.

Zanga (ZNGA): Needham lowered their rating from Buy to Hold.

Earning Reports:

Amazon.com (AMZN): Reported EPS of -0.02 missing estimates by -$0.07. Pre-market: 300.28 -3.12 (-1.03%)

Chubb (CB): Reported EPS of $1.77 beating estimates by +$0.20.

Dolby Labs (DLB): Reported EPS of $0.47 beating estimates by +$0.05.

Dole Food (DOLE): Reported EPS of $0.28 beating estimates by +$0.17.

Expedia (EXPE): Reported EPS of $0.64 missing estimates by -$0.20. Pre-market: 50.19 -14.81 (-22.78%)

NETGEAR (NTGR): Reported EPS of $0.62 beating estimates by +$0.06.

Republic Services (RSG): Reported EPS of $0.43 missing estimates by -$0.06.

Starbucks (SBUX): Reported EPS of $0.55 beating estimates by +$0.02.

Zynga (ZNGA): Reported EPS of -$0.01 beating estimates by +$0.03.

Markets: 
Futures at 8:41: Dow -0.41%. S&P -0.54%. Nasdaq -0.18%. Crude -0.89% to $104.56. Gold -0.39% to $1323.70.  U.S.10 Year +6/32 2.549%

Europe: London -0.38%. Paris +0.23%. Frankfurt -0.70%. 

Asia: Japan -2.97% to 14130. Hong Kong +0.31% to 21969. China -0.51% to 2011. India -0.29% to 19,750. 

Morning Coffee Pre-Market Wall Street News

Leaders Defend Detroit Bankruptcy

Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder (R) and Kevyn Orr, the emergency manager and bankruptcy lawyer that was appointed to run the city, both put the city’s bankruptcy blame squarely on the city. The city has been run by Democrats for decades.  At its height Detroit had over 1.8 million citizens, now the city has less than half that many citizens leaving abandoned burned out homes and a $19 billion debt in its wake. The city had once even been considered as a finalist for the Olympics.

The Republican Governor stood by his decision over the weekend on Face the Nation saying that “It’s not about just more money, it’s about accountable government.” He went on to talk about the mismanagement and corruption within the local government. Currently former Detroit Major Kwame Kilpatrick is serving a jail sentence for racketeering, wire fraud, Mail fraud, and obstruction of justice.

Some Wall Street analysts and investors are watching very closely since there are several other major U.S. cities with similar financial problems including : Chicago which has an unfunded pension liability reported to be at least $19 billion and Los Angeles with a liability estimate to be as much as $30 billion.

Upgrades:

Alcatel-Lucent (ALU): Raymond James raised their rating from Outperform to Strong Buy and placed a target price of $3.50 on the company.

Cognizant Tech (CTSH): Goldman Sachs raised their rating from Neutral to Buy and placed a target price of $90.00 on the company.

Downgrades:

Autoliv (ALV): Buckingham lowered their rating from Buy to Neutral and lowered their target price from $68.00 to $63.00. Pre-market: 80.97 -1.16 (-1.41%)

Crocs (CROX): Wedbush lowered their rating from Outperform to Neutral and maintained their target price of $18.00.

Honeywell (HON): Nomura lowered their rating from Buy to Neutral and raised their target price to $88.00.

H&R Block (HRB): BTIG lowered their rating from Buy to Neutral.

Nokia (NOK): Oppenheimer lowered their rating from Perform to Underperform.

TD Ameritrade (AMTD): BMO Capital lowered their rating from Outperform to Market Perform and placed a target price of $26.00 on the company.

Towers Watson (TW): Deutsche Bank lowered their rating from Buy to Hold and raised their target price from $80.00 to $93.00.

VF Corp (VFC): Credit Suisse lowered their rating from Outperform to Neutral and lowered their target price from $208.00 to $188.00.

Earning Reports:

Federal-Mogul (FDML): Reported EPS of $0.57 beating estimates by +$0.18. Pre-market: 11.28 +0.60 (5.62%)

Gannett (GCI): Reported EPS of $0.58 missing estimates by $0.01. Pre-market: 25.11 -1.25 (-4.74%)

Halliburton (HAL): Reported EPS of $0.73 beating estimates by +$0.01. Pre-market: 46.10 +0.27 (0.59%)

Hasbro (HAS): Reported EPS of $0.29 missing estimates by $0.05. Pre-market: 44.60 -0.78 (-1.72%)

Kimberly-Clark (KMB): Reported EPS of $1.41 beating estimates by +$0.02. Pre-market: 98.05 -1.44 (-1.45%)

McDonald's (MCD): Reported EPS of $1.38 missing estimates by $0.02. Pre-market: 97.77 -2.50 (-2.49%)

Markets: 
Futures at 8:30: Dow +0.05%. S&P +0.05%. Nasdaq +0.17%. Crude +0.30% to $108.37. Gold +2.02% to $1319.02.

Europe: London -0.24%. Paris +0.15%. Frankfurt -0.09%. 

Asia: Japan +0.47% to 14658. Hong Kong +0.25% to 21417. China +0.61% to 2005. India +0.05% to 20,159.