MORNING COFFEE

BofA and Citi Hid Debt. Reports state that both Bank of America (BAC) and Citigroup (C) hid billions of dollars of debt from investors through accounting errors. Over the last three years, the two banks say they “accidentally”' classified some short-term repurchase agreements, or "repos," as sales instead of borrowing. Lehman Brothers (LEHMQ) had done the same thing before its bankruptcy to improve its balance sheet. Bank of America and Citigroup say the misclassifications were due to errors, and not an attempt to make themselves look less risky.

Apple Bigger Then Microsoft. At the close of trading yesterday, Apple (AAPL) surpassed Microsoft (MSFT) as the world's largest technology company by market capitalization. Apple's market value was $223 billion as compared to Microsoft's $219 billion.

Upgrades

Limited (LTD): Argus raised their rating from Hold to Buy and placed a target price of $32.00 on the company.

Microsoft (MSFT): FBR Capital raised their rating from Market Perform to Outperform and raised their target price from $31.00 to $32.00.

BP (BP): Oppenheimer raised their rating from Perform to Outperform and placed a target price of $55.00 on the company.

Coverage Initiated

Joy Global (JOYG): Broadpoint AmTech initiated coverage with a Buy rating and target price of $60.00.

Coverage Reiterated/Price Target Changed

Jo-Ann Stores (JAS): Wedbush reiterated their Outperform rating and raised their target price from $47.00 to $51.00.

Covidien (COV): RBC Capital Markets reiterated their Sector Perform rating and lowered their target price from $58.00 to $53.00.

Cracker Barrel (CBRL): Argus reiterated their Buy rating and raised their target price from $54.00 to $58.00.

Yahoo! (YHOO): Oppenheimer reiterated their Perform rating and lowered their target price from $21.00 to $19.00.

Earning Reports

Big Lots (BIG): Reported Q1 EPS of $0.68 beating estimates by +$0.01 on revenue of $1.2 billion.

Costco (COST): Reported FQ3 EPS of $0.68 beating estimates by +$0.02 on revenue of $17.4 billion.

Lenovo (LNVGY): Reported full-year net profit of $129 million ($1.42/share) missing estimates by -$16 million.

Dress Barn (DBRN): Reported FQ3 EPS of $0.60 missing estimates by -$0.01 on revenue of $666 million.

Tiffany & CO. (TIF): Reported Q ESP of $0.50 beating estimates by +$0.13 on revenue of $633.6 million. Tiffany also raised its full year profit forecast to a range of $2.55 to $2.60 per share, above the average Wall Street’s estimate of $2.51.

·         Futures: Dow +2.1%. S&P +2.6%. Nasdaq +2.6%. Crude +2.7% to $73.44. Gold -0.2% to $1211.50.

·         Asia: Japan +1.2% to 9640. Hong Kong +1.2% to 19431. China +1.1% to 2656. India +1.7% to 16666.

·         Europe: London +2.0%. Paris +2.1%. Frankfurt +2.4%.