MORNING COFFEE

Inflation Higher in China. China said its inflation rate jumped +2.7% percent in February.  Rapid inflation could force China to raise interest rates. A rise in China’s interest rate could slow their economy and the world wide economic recovery.

Treasury Deficit Hits Record High. Treasury's budget statement for February showed a deficit of $223 billion up +14% from the same period a year ago.  Interest on the debt has risen +17%.

Foreclosures Slow. U.S. foreclosure filings rose at the slowest pace in four years in February as the government sought to reduce record bank seizures, according to Realty Trac.

Jobless Claims Fall.  Initial claims for state unemployment benefits fell 6,000 to a seasonally adjusted 462,000 from 468,000 the prior week.  The four-week moving average of new claims rose 5,000 to 475,500, the highest since late November. Continuing claims unexpectedly rose 37,000 to 4.56 million in the week ended February 27. Economist had expected continuing claims to hold steady at 4.49 million.

Carlos Slim Takes Top Spot. Mexico's Carlos Slim overtook Bill Gates as the world's richest personl, with a total net worthof $53.5 billion.  Microsoft’s (MSFT) Bill Gates came in second and Birkshire Hathway’s, (BRKA/BRKB) Warren Buffett took third place.

Smithfield Foods (SFD): Reported FQ3 EPS of $0.22 beating estimates by +$0.03 on revenue of $2.9 billion.

Upgrades

Dr Pepper Snapple (DPS): UBS raised their rating from Neutral to Buy and raised their target price from $31.00 to $42.00.

Level 3 (LVLT): JP Morgan raised their rating from Underweight to Neutral.

Downgrades

Bed Bath & Beyond (BBBY): FBR Capital lowered their rating from Market Perform to Underperform and changed their target price from $38.50 to $38.00.

Yahoo! (YHOO): Benchmark lowered their rating from Buy to Hold and placed a target price of $18.00 on the company.

Airgas (ARG): Jefferies & Co lowered their rating from Buy to Hold and placed a target price of $60.00 on the company.

·         Futures: Dow -0.15%. S&P -0.2%. Nasdaq -0.1%. Crude +0.07% to $82.15. Gold -0.26% to $1106.30.

·         Asia: Nikkei +1% to 10665. Hang Seng +0.1% to 21228. Shanghai +0.1% to 3051. BSE +0.4% to 17168.

·         Europe: London -0.4% to 5619. Paris -0.4% to 3928. Frankfurt flat at 5935.

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