MORNING COFFEE

FOMC Meets Today. In an attempt to stimulate the economy which grew at just +2.0% in Q3 and bring down high unemployment which is stuck at 9.6%, the Fed is expected to announce new quantitative easing (QE2) today.  Economists are expecting the Fed to announce a new round of Treasury purchases totaling approximately $500 billion over a six-month period.  Some analysts believe that it could eventually go as high as $1 trillion. The Fed has already bought about $1.7 trillion in U.S. government debt and mortgage-linked bonds.  Additionally, the Fed is expected to keep interest rates unchanged.  The Fed originally cut Fed Funds interest rates to near zero back in December 2008.  The Fed is expected to announce its decision at 2:15 p.m. ET.

Dell To Buy Boomi. Dell (DELL) announced that they are buying software-as-a-service company Boomi for an undisclosed sum. The acquisition will help the company expand its cloud-computing presence.  Earlier this year, Dell bought Ocarina Networks, which allows data to be stored online more efficiently.

Earnings

CVS Caremark (CVS): Reported EPS of $0.59, excluding one-time acquisition costs, the company would have earned $0.65 in-line with estimates on revenues of $23.88 billion.

WellPoint Health Networks (WLP): Reported Q3 EPS of $1.74 beating estimates by +$0.17 on revenue of $14.3 billion.  

Aetna (AET): Reported Q3 EPS of $0.84 beating estimates by +$0.17 on revenue of $8.5 billion.

R.R. Donnelley & Sons Company (RRD): Reported Q3 EPS of $0.44 beating estimates by +$0.01 on revenue of $2.5 billion.

Discovery Co (DISCA): Reported Q3 EPS of $0.37 missing estimates by -$0.06 on revenue of $926 million. 

Electronic Arts (ERTS): Reported FQ2 EPS of $0.10 beating estimates by +$0.20 on revenue of $884 million. 

Syniverse (SVR): Reported Q3 EPS of $0.53 beating estimates by +$0.02 on revenue of $167 million.

Upgrades

Xilinx (XLNX): Ticonderoga raised their rating from Neutral to Buy and placed a target price of $34.00 on the company.

Downgrades

Altera (ALTR): Ticonderoga raised their rating from Buy to Neutral.

Coverage Reiterated/Price Target Changed

Clorox (CLX): Oppenheimer reiterated their Perform rating and lowered their target price from $75.00 to $70.00.

AmerisourceBergen (ABC): Oppenheimer reiterated their Outperform rating and raised their target price from $35.00 to $37.00.

Medco Health Solutions (MHS): Oppenheimer reiterated their Outperform rating and raised their target price from $60.00 to $70.00.

MasterCard (MA): Oppenheimer reiterated their Outperform rating and raised their target price from $260.00 to $295.00.

MasterCard (MA): FBR Capital reiterated their Outperform rating and raised their target price from $250.00 to $290.00.

·         Futures at 7:00: Dow +0.1%. S&P +0.1%. Nasdaq +0.1%. Crude +0.9% to $84.63. Gold +0.1% to $1358.80.

·         Asia: Japan +0.1% to 9160. Hong Kong +2.0% to 24145. China -0.5% to 3031. India +0.6% to 20466.

·         Europe: London +0.2%. Paris +0.5%. Frankfurt +0.3%.