MORNING COFFEE

McDonald’s May Drop Healthcare Plans. McDonald’s (MCD) is considering dropping its health insurance coverage for nearly 30,000 workers unless they receive a waiver from the Obama health care reform law and the potential costs to the company. This is the first  company to voice concerns over low cost, low benefits, “mini-med” plans that provide limited benefits to low-wage workers which could affect millions of workers.

Spanish Debt Rating Lowered. Moody’s (MCO) has followed other debt rating agencies by downgrading Spain’s government debt.  The company cut the rating by one notch from Aaa to Aa1, citing a weak economic outlook and continued doubt that Spain will reach its deficit-reduction targets.

JPMorgan Stops Foreclosures. JPMorgan Chase (JPM) is stopping more than 56,000 foreclosure proceedings until the company can review documents after the company became aware that employees may have signed affidavits without personally reviewing the documents. GMAC Mortgage also admitted recently that its employees signed foreclosure affidavits without any documents. 

Upgrades

ProLogis (PLD): Stifel Nicolaus raised their rating from Hold to Buy and placed a target price of $14.00 on the company.

Downgrades

Tellabs (TLAB): Morgan Keegan lowered their rating from Outperform to Market Perform.

Coverage Reiterated/Price Target Changed

Family Dollar (FDO): Wedbush reiterated their Neutral rating and raised their target price from $37.00 to $40.00.

Stericycle (SRCL): Wunderlich reiterated their Hold rating and raised their target price from $50.00 to $63.00.

Apple (AAPL): Stifel Nicolaus reiterated their Buy rating and raised their target price from $350.00 to $360.00.

Vonage (VG): Northland Securities reiterated their Outperform rating and raised their target price from $3.00 to $3.25.

Earnings Report

Family Dollar (FDO):  Reported earnings of $0.56 beating estimates by +$0.05.

McCormick (MKC): Reported earnings of $0.66 beating estimates by +$0.07.

·         Futures: Dow -0.01%. S&P -0.09%. Nasdaq -0.01%. Crude +0.21% to $78.02. Gold +0.27% to $1313.90.

·         Asia: Japan -1.99% to 93369. Hong Kong -0.09% to 22358. China+1.72% to 2656. India +0.57% to 20069.

·         Europe: London -0.11%. Paris -0.72%. Frankfurt -0.22%.