MORNING COFFEE

Apple’s Steve Jobs Takes Medical Leave. Apple’s (AAPL) CEO Steve Jobs announced that he's taking a medical leave, but he will remain as CEO during his leave. In the announcement no details of his condition were given.  Job’s is a cancer survivor and has had a liver transplant. Apple is scheduled to report their earnings today after the close.  Analysts estimates are for the company to report Q1 EPS of $5.39 versus year over year of $3.67. Premarket: AAPL -4.2% (7:00 ET).

Upgrades

McDonald's (MCD): RBC Capital Markets raised their rating from Sector Perform to Outperform and placed a target price of $85.00 on the company.

Downgrades

Abbott Labs (ABT): RBC Capital Markets lowered their rating from Top Pick to Outperform and lowered their target price from $66.00 to $60.00.

Tim Hortons (THI): RBC Capital Markets lowered their rating from Outperform to Sector Perform and placed a target price of $45.00 on the company.

Coverage Reiterated/Price Target Changed

Canadian National Rail (CNI): Dahlman Rose reiterated their Buy rating and raised their target price from $70.00 to $79.00.

Johnson & Johnson (JNJ): RBC Capital Markets reiterated their Sector Perform rating and lowered their target price from $62.00 to $60.00.

Google (GOOG): Oppenheimer reiterated their Outperform rating and raised their target price from $640.00 to $705.00.

Xilinx (XLNX): Auriga U.S.A reiterated their Hold rating and raised their target price from $29.00 to $35.00.

Earning Reports

Delta Air Lines (DAL): Reported FQ4 EPS of $0.19 missing estimates by -$0.05 on revenue of $7.79 billion, up +14.5%.

TD Ameritrade (TD): Reported EPS of $0.25 in line with estimates.

·         Futures at 7:00: Dow +0.4%. S&P +0.3%. Nasdaq -0.4%. Crude -0.15% to $91.40. Gold +0.6% to $1368.90.

·         Europe: London +1.3%. Paris +0.9%. Frankfurt +1.1%.

·         Asia: Japan +0.1% to 10519. Hong Kong 0.0% at 24154. China +0.1% to 2709. India +1.1% to 19092.