MORNING COFFEE

DuPont Buys Danisco. DuPont (DD) announced that they have agreed to buy Danisco (DNSCY) for $5.8 billion per share. DuPont will also assume $500 million of debt. Danisco a Danish company is the world’s largest food-ingredients maker. DuPont expects the deal to reduce expected 2011 EPS of $3.30-3.60 by $0.30 to $0.45, and begin adding to earnings in 2012.

Upgrades

Jacobs Engineering (JEC): Stifel Nicolaus raised their rating from Hold to Buy and placed a target price of $53.00 on the company.

Freeport-McMoRan (FCX): Stifel Nicolaus raised their rating from Hold to Buy and placed a target price of $140.00 on the company.

Downgrades

Motorola Mobility (MMI): Morgan Keegan lowered their rating from Outperform to Market Perform.

RadioShack (RSH): FBR Capital lowered their rating from Outperform to Market Perform.

AT&T (T): Hudson Square Research lowered their rating from Buy to Hold.

Flagstar Bancorp (FBC): FBR Capital lowered their rating from Outperform to Market Perform and placed a target price of $1.75 on the company.

Wells Fargo (WFC): FBR Capital lowered their rating from Outperform to Market Perform and placed a target price of $31.00 on the company.

Coverage Initiated

Coach (COH): Brean Murray initiated coverage with a Buy rating and target price of $65.00.

Coverage Reiterated/Price Target Changed 

Broadcom (BRCM): reiterated their Outperform rating and raised their target price from $49.00 to $52.00.

NVIDIA (NVDA): Wedbush reiterated their Neutral rating and raised their target price from $10.00 to $18.00.

Fluor (FLR): Stifel Nicolaus reiterated their Buy rating and raised their target price from $64.00 to $77.00.

BP (BP): Oppenheimer reiterated their Outperform rating and raised their target price from $45.00 to $55.00.

Silicon Labs (SLAB): FBR Capital reiterated their Market Perform rating and raised their target price from $35.00 to $42.00.

Qualcomm (QCOM): FBR Capital reiterated their Outperform rating and raised their target price from $51.00 to $55.00.

Earning Reports

Fourth Quarter earnings season kicks off today with Alcoa (AA) reporting their earnings after the close today.  Analysts estimate the company will report earnings of $0.19 versus $0.01 a year ago.

Helen of Troy (HELE): Reported EPS of $0.86 beating estimates by +$0.09.

·         Futures at 7:00: Dow -0.3%. S&P -0.5%. Nasdaq -0.3%. Crude +0.6% to $88.58. Gold 0.0% at $1368.40.

·         Europe: London -0.5%. Paris -1.6%. Frankfurt -0.8%.

·         Asia: Japan closed. Hong Kong -0.7% to 23527. China -1.6% to 2792. India -2.4% to 19224.