MORNING COFFEE

Senate Approves Tax Bill. In an 81-19 vote the Senate approved the $858 billion tax bill laid out by President Obama.  The bill will now go to the House, where it faces strong opposition. Lawmakers have until Dec. 31 to get the bill signed into law or tax rates will increase. Many are upset that the bill which is over 1,800 pages long and stuffed with billions of dollars in wasteful spending on pet projects.

Upgrades

Oracle (ORCL): Macquarie raised their rating from Neutral to Outperform and placed a target price of $37.00 on the company.

Downgrades

Alliant Tech (ATK): FBR Capital lowered their rating from Outperform to Market Perform.

L-3 Comms (LLL): FBR Capital lowered their rating from Outperform to Market Perform.

Raytheon (RTN): FBR Capital lowered their rating from Outperform to Market Perform.

VeriSign (VRSN): Oppenheimer lowered their rating from Outperform to Perform.

Coverage Reiterated/Price Target Changed

Joy Global (JOYG): RBC Capital Markets reiterated their Outperform rating and raised their target price from $88.00 to $96.00.

Delta Air Lines (DAL): Stifel Nicolaus reiterated their Buy rating and raised their target price from $16.00 to $18.00.

Take-Two (TTWO): Kaufman Bros reiterated their Hold rating and raised their target price from $12.00 to $13.00.

Apple (AAPL): Kaufman Bros reiterated their Buy rating and raised their target price from $380.00 to $395.00.

Earning Reports

FedEx (FDX): Reported EPS of $1.16 missing estimates by -$0.15.

General Mills (GIS): Reported EPS of $0.76 missing estimates by -$0.02.

Rite Aid (RAD): Reported EPS of -$0.09 beating estimates by +$0.04.

Pier 1 Imports (PIR): Reported Q3 EPS of $0.18 beating estimates by +$0.04 on revenue of $353.8 million.

·         Futures at 7:00: Dow +0.05%. S&P +0.1%. Nasdaq +0.1%. Crude -0.7% to $88.01. Gold -0.1% to $1384.70.

·         Asia: Japan 0.0% at 10311. Hong Kong -1.3% to 22669. China -0.5% to 2898. India +1.1% to 19865.

·         Europe: London +0.1%. Paris -0.1%. Frankfurt 0.0%.