MORNING COFFEE

Jobs Bill is Now Law.  President Obama signed a $17.6 billion jobs bill into law yesterday.  The new law will try to stimulate employment by providing tax breaks to businesses that hire new workers.

Foreclosed Homes Increase. The number of foreclosed homes that banks are trying to sell is rising and the rise will cause a further fall in home values.  Barclays Capital estimates that banks now hold 645,800 foreclosed homes in January up +4.6% from December.  

SunPower Restates Earnings.  SunPower (SPWRA) said it will restate its earnings for 2008-2010 after an internal investigation into accounting issues uncovered errors.  The investigation resulted in $33.2 million in additional expenses and a $16.9 million reduction in income.

Cintas (CTAS): Reported Q3 FY10 EPS of $0.32 beating estimates by +$0.02 on revenue of $862 million.  The company also reaffirmed Q4 EPS.

Palm (PALM): Reported Q3 FY10 EPS of -$0.61 missing estimates by -$0.19 on revenue of $366 million.

SunPower (SPWRA): Reported Q4 EPS of $0.50 beating estimates by +$0.01 on revenue of $548 million.

Downgrades

Palm (PALM):  Morgan Joseph lowered their rating from Hold to Underperform and placed a target price of $0.00 on the company.

Palm (PALM):  Kaufman Bros lowered their rating from Hold to Sell and placed a target price of $3.00 on the company.

Synaptics (SYNA): Oppenheimer lowered their rating from Outperform to Perform.

Coverage Initiated

CVS Caremark (CVS):  Caris & Company initiated coverage with an Average rating and a target price of $36.00.

Research In Motion (RIMM): Wunderlich initiated coverage with a Buy rating and a target price of $96.00.

Coverage Reiterated/Price Target Changed

FedEx (FDX): Credit Suisse reiterated their Neutral rating and changed their target price from $99.00 to $100.00.

U.S. Steel (X): Credit Suisse reiterated their Neutral rating and changed their target price from $45.00 to $56.00.

Oracle (ORCL): Jefferies reiterated their Buy rating and changed their target price from $28.00 to $29.00.

·         Futures: Dow +0.1%. S&P +0.1%. Nasdaq flat. Crude -0.7% to $81.61. Gold -0.5% to $1121.40.

·         Asia: Nikkei +0.8% to 10825. Hang Seng +0.2% to 21371. Shanghai +0.7% to 3068. BSE +0.3% to 17578.

·         Europe: London +0.7% to 5684. European +0.5% to 3958. Frankfurt +0.5% to 6040.