MORNING COFFEE

Fed To Outline Tightening Plan. Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke will begin to lay out the Federal Reserve's plan to tighten credit this week.  The plan would kick in once the Fed decides the economy is sufficiently strong.

IBM Unveils New Chip. IBM (IBM) will announce its Power7 chip today, IBM’s next generation of microprocessor chips and systems will help extend its recent lead in the market for midrange servers. The chip is four times faster than its predecessor; the debut comes as Intel (INTC) is expected to introduce a long-delayed version of its high-end Itanium chip today.

Loews Corp (L): reported Q4 EPS of $0.94 missing estimates by -$0.01, on revenue of $3.8 billion.

Earning Reports to be released today: CVS Caremark (CVS), NASDAQ (NDAQ), and Electronic Arts (ERTS).

Upgrades

Walt Disney (DIS): JP Morgan upgraded the company from Underweight to Neutral

Exxon Mobil (XOM): Collins Stewart upgraded their rating from Hold to Buy and put a target price of $80.00 on the company.

Amazon.com (AMZN): Collins Stewart upgraded their rating from Hold to Buy and put a target price of $150.00 on the company.

·         Futures: Dow -0.1%. S&P -0.1%. Nasdaq -0.1%. Crude +0.4% to $71.48. Gold +1.6% to $1,069.50.

·         Asia, Nikkei -1.05% to 9,952. Hang Seng -0.6% to 19,551. Shanghai -0.1% to 2,935. BSE +0.1% to 15,936.

·         Europe at midday, London flat. Paris +0.2%. Frankfurt +0.5%.