MORNING COFFEE

KKR To Trade On NYSE. Government regulators approved Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co. request to list its shares on the NYSE.  According to the securities filing, co-founders Henry Kravis and George Roberts each own a 13% stake worth a combined $1.65B.  The shares will begin trading on July 15 with the ticker symbol KKR.

Stock Funds Losses Top 10%. The S&P 500 index fell -11.86%, taking back all of its +5.4% gain from the first quarter.  According to Lipper Inc. the average U.S. stock fund lost -10.42% in the quarter.  Large-cap growth funds fell the most, losing -12.29% followed by Midcap -10% and Small-cap -9.2%.  Government bond funds returned as much as +4.95% in the second quarter.

Upgrades

VeriSign (VRSN): Oppenheimer raised their rating from Perform to Outperform and set a target price of $33.00.

EMC (EMC): Oppenheimer raised their rating from Perform to Outperform and set a target price of $22.00.

Coverage Initiated

Eastman Chemical (EMN): Gleacher & Company initiated coverage with a Buy rating and target price of $70.00.

Rosetta Resources (ROSE): Howard Weil initiated coverage with a Market Outperform rating and target price of $30.00.

Tupperware (TUP): Caris & Company initiated coverage with an Above Average rating and target price of $48.00.

Coverage Reiterated/Price Target Changed

Apple (AAPL): Gleacher & Company reiterated their Buy rating and raised their target price from $355.00 to $370.00.

Earning Reports

Family Dollar Stores (FDO): Reported FQ3 EPS of $0.77 beating estimates by +$0.01 on revenue of $1.9 billion.

·         Futures: Dow -0.2%. S&P -0.2%. Nasdaq -0.2%. Crude +0.1% to $72.04. Gold -0.6% to $1187.40.

·         Asia: Japan  -0.6% to 9280. Hong Kong -1.1% to 19857. China +0.5% to 2421. India -0.8% to 17471.

·         Europe: London -0.7%. Paris -1.0%. Frankfurt -0.8%.