MORNING COFFEE

Earthquake Hits Japan. An 8.9 magnitude earthquake has struck off the coast of Japan, leaving most of Tokyo without power.  The earthquake has triggered a massive tsunami and hundreds could be missing out dead.  Tsunami warnings have been issued for several countries, including the U.S West Coast and Hawaii.  Global markets are down on the uncertainty of how the earthquake will impact the global economy with the insurance sector getting hit the most.

 Coverage Initiated

Oracle (ORCL): BMO Capital Markets initiated coverage with an Outperform rating and target price of $42.00.

Ensco (ESV): Morgan Keegan initiated coverage with an Outperform rating and target price of $63.50.

Coverage Reiterated/Price Target Changed

Aeropostale (ARO): Brean Murray reiterated their Buy rating and lowered their target price from $32.00 to $28.00.

Earning Reports

Aeropostale (ARO): Reported Q4 EPS of $0.98 beating estimates by +$0.01 on revenue of $839 million, beating estimates by +$5 million. Shares -8.61% Pre-market.

AnnTaylor (ANN): Reported EPS of $0.19 beating estimates by +$0.02.

National Semiconductor (NSM): Reported FQ3 EPS of $0.24 in-line with estimates on revenue of $344 million, missing estimates by -$8 million.

·         Futures at 7:00: Dow -0.4%. S&P -0.4%. Nasdaq -0.4%. Crude -3.1% to $99.54. Gold -0.4% to $1406.80.

·         Europe: London -0.5%. Paris -1.0%. Frankfurt -0.9%.

·         Asia: Japan -1.7% to 10254. Hong Kong -1.6% to 23250. China -0.7% to 2936. India -0.8% to 18174.