MORNING COFFEE

Fed To Testify Today. Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke will appear before Congress today for the first time since his confirmation hearing in January. He's set to testify on monetary policy and the state of the economy. Lawmakers will question what the Fed can, or will, do to ease the unemployment situation, encourage economic recovery and tighten credit when appropriate.

Problem Banks Increase In Number. The FDIC reported problem banks jumped 27% in the fourth quarter to 702, the highest level in over 15 years, while assets held by those banks increased $403 billion. The report implied that lending dropped a substantial -7.5% the largest decline since the 1940s.

Bill To Cut Corp Tax Rate. Two senators jointly introduced a bill yesterday that would reduce the corporate income tax rate to a flat 24% from 35%.  In a statement they said "The United States has the second highest corporate tax rate in the industrialized world. After this law goes into effect, which I certainly hope it will, we will be pretty much competitive with everybody who’s a major player in the corporate world but, certainly, the countries which are our primary competition in Europe and Asia."

Garmin (GRMN): Reported Q4 EPS of $1.43 beating estimates by+$0.48 on revenue of $1.05 billion.

Autodesk (ADSK): Reported Q4 EPS of $0.30 beating estimates by +$0.07 on revenue of $456 million.

Chiquita (CQB): Reported Q4 EPS of -$0.52 missing estimates by -$0.24 on revenue of $879 million.

Toll Brothers (TOL): Reported Q4 EPS of -$0.25 beating estimates by +$0.10 on revenue of $ 326.7 million.

Upgrades

Autodesk (ADSK): Needham raised their rating from Hold to Buy and placed a target price of $31.00.

FPL Group (FLP): Credit Suisse raised their rating from Neutral to Outperform and placed a target price of $56.00.

Coverage Initiated

Viacom (VIA.B): Janney Montgomery Scott initiated coverage with a Buy rating.

Time Warner (TWX): Janney Montgomery Scott initiated coverage with a Buy rating.

Coverage Resumed

Xilinx (XLNX): Stifel Nicolaus resumed coverage with a Hold rating.

Altera (ALTR): Stifel Nicolaus resumed coverage with a Hold rating and a target price of $30.00.

·         Futures: Dow +0.08% to 10307. S&P +0.02% to 1098. Nasdaq +0.21%. Crude 0% to $81.89. Gold -0.26% to $1170.90.

·         Asia: Nikkei -1.5% to 10199. Hang Seng -0.8% to 20468. Shanghai +1.3% to 3022. BSE -0.2% to 16256.

·         Europe: London +0.3% to 5330. Paris flat at 3708. Frankfurt -0.1% to 5601.