MORNING COFFEE

AT&T Loses Exclusive iPhone. Apple (AAPL) will be coming out with new iPhones for summer, The Wall Street Journal reported. The new phones will include a phone based on Qualcomm’s (QCOM) CDMA, the wireless technology used by AT&T’s (T) competitors Verizon Wireless (VZ) Vodafone (VOD) and Sprint (S) possibly ending AT&T’s exclusive agreement.  Some say the new phone "iPhone HD" will have a custom processor, multitasking support and a front-facing camera.

Cisco Get OK For Acquisition. Cisco Systems (CSCO) secured approvals from the EU and the Justice Department clearing its last hurdles in a $3.4 billion acquisition of Norway's Tandberg.

Economic Reports Have Traders Waiting. Wall Street is expecting that consumer confidence grew in March and home price declines continued to ease. 

The consumer confidence report is expected to continue its trend of modest improvement. The Conference Board's Consumer Confidence Index is expected to rise to 50 in March from 46 the prior month according to economist.  Although it would be an improvement a reading of 90 or above indicates that the economy is on solid footing.

Economists predict the Standard & Poor's/Case-Shiller home price index, which measures prices in 20 major metropolitan markets, likely fell -0.8% in January versus a year earlier. That would be an improvement from the -3.1% decline in December.

Upgrades

Apollo Group (APOL): RBC Capital Markets raised their rating from Underperform to Sector Perform.

Coverage Reiterated/Price Target Change

Medtronic (MDT): Stifel Nicolaus reiterated their Buy rating and changed their target price from $48.00 to $51.00.

Netflix (NFLX): FBR Capital reiterated their Outperform rating and changed their target price from $71.00 to $85.00.

·         Futures: S&P +0.19%. 10-yr +0.04%. Euro -0.05% vs. dollar. Crude+0.12% to $82.27. Gold -0.01% to $1111.40.

·         Asia:  Nikkei +1.0% to 11097. Hang Seng +0.65% to 21375. Shanghai +0.15% to 3128. BSE -0.8% to 17565.

·         Europe: London +0.05% to 5713. Paris +0.17% to 4007. Frankfurt +0.16% to 6166.