MORNING COFFEE

Alcoa To Kick Off Earnings Season.  

Dow component Alcoa (AA) is scheduled to kick off earnings season after the close today.  Analysts will be watching closely as companies report their earning, to see how inflation has impacted their bottom line.  Commodity price have been rising for some time and companies have been absorbing most of the cost versus passing it onto consumers.  Alcoa is expected to report Q1 earnings of $0.27. Pre-market: 18.06 +0.14 (0.78%)

NYSE Rejects Nasdaq Bid.  

The NYSE Eurnext (NYX) has reaffirmed its commitment to merge with Deutsche Boerse (DBOEY).  The $9.7 billion deal to merge with Deutsche Boerse is far less than the Nasdaq (NDAQ) and ICE (ICE) offer of $11.3 billion.  The NYSE cited “unacceptable execution risk” and said it would be a “strategic mistake” as their reason for not taking the higher offer.  The Nasdaq and ICE will now take their offer directly to the shareholders as a hostile bid for the company. NYX Pre-market: 38.56 -0.14 (-0.36%)

Coverage Initiated

Summit Hotel (INN): KeyBanc Capital Markets initiated coverage with a Buy rating and target price of $13.00.

Coverage Reiterated/Price Target Changed

Comcast (CMCSA): Wunderlich reiterated their Buy rating and raised their target price from $30.00 to $33.00.

Valero Energy (VLO): The Benchmark Company reiterated their Buy rating and raised their target price from $27.00 to $31.00.

Yingli Green Energy (YGE): Auriga U.S.A reiterated their Buy rating and lowered their target price from $18.00 to $14.50.

·         Futures at 7:00: Dow +0.3%. S&P +0.3%. Nasdaq +0.45%. Crude -0.95% to $111.72. Gold -0.4% to $1467.90.

·         Europe: London +0.2%. Paris -0.5%. Frankfurt 0.0%.

·         Asia: Japan -0.5% to 9719.7. Hong Kong -0.4% to 24303. China -0.3% to 3023. India -1.0% to 19263.