MORNING COFFEE

Bernanke To Give Press Conference. 

For the first time ever a Fed Chairman will give a scheduled press conference.  Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke today at 2:15 is scheduled to give a news conference. During the conference he is expected to announce that the FOMC will keep interest rates unchanged at 0-0.25% for an "an extended period," and continue with its $600 billion bond-buying program. The FOMC will also release its quarterly growth and inflation estimates which are expected to be revised lower from 3.4-3.9% to 2.9%. After his statements he will be answering questions from the press.

Upgrades

Emerson (EMR): Oppenheimer raised their rating from Perform to Outperform and raised their target price from $65.00 to $74.00.

First Solar (FSLR): Kaufman Bros raised their rating from Hold to Buy placed a target price of $165.00 on the company.

Downgrades

Lexmark (LXK): Brean Murray lowered their rating from Buy to Hold.

Roper Inds (ROP): Oppenheimer lowered their rating from Outperform to Perform.

Coverage Reiterated/Price Target Changed

Broadcom (BRCM): Kaufman Bros reiterated their Buy rating and lowered their target price from $48.00 to $46.00.

Broadcom (BRCM): Auriga U.S.A reiterated their Buy rating and lowered their target price from $50.00 to $47.00.

U.S. Steel (X): Dahlman Rose reiterated their Buy rating and lowered their target price from $85.00 to $65.00.

Altera (ALTR): Auriga U.S.A reiterated their Buy rating and raised their target price from $51.00 to $54.00.

Amazon.com (AMZN): Oppenheimer reiterated their Outperform rating and raised their target price from $200.00 to $220.00.

Amazon.com (AMZN): The Benchmark Company reiterated their Buy rating and raised their target price from $200.00 to $212.00.

3M (MMM): FBR Capital reiterated their Outperform rating and raised their target price from $99.00 to $105.00.

Earning Reports

Amazon.com (AMZN): Reported Q1 EPS of $0.44 missing estimates by -$0.16 on revenue of $9.86 billion, beating estimates by +$0.3 billion. Pre-market: 180.30 -2.00 (-1.10%)

Baker Hughes (BHI): Reported Q1 EPS of $0.87 beating estimates by +$0.09 on revenue of $4.52 billion, beating estimates by +$0.24 billion. Pre-market: 78.08 +4.02 (5.43%)

Broadcom (BRCM): Reported Q1 EPS of $0.40 beating estimates by +$0.05 on revenue of $1.81 billion, in-line. Pre-market: 37.00 -3.41 (-8.44%)

Nabors Industries (NBR): Reported Q1 EPS of $0.29 missing estimates by -$0.05 on revenue of $1.4 billion, beating estimates by +$1 billion. Pre-market: 32.17 +0.11 (0.34%)

National-Oilwell (NOV): Reported Q1 EPS of $1.00 in-line with estimates on revenue of $3.14 billion, beating estimates by +$0.02 billion. Pre-market: 80.60 +0.00 (0.00%)

Whirlpool (WHR): Reported Q1 EPS of $2.11 beating estimates by +$0.47 on revenue of $4.40 billion, beating estimates by +$0.14 billion. Pre-market: 90.99 +3.13 (3.56%)

·         Futures at 7:28: Dow +0.34%.  S&P +0.36%. Nasdaq +0.64%. Crude +0.4% to $112.61. Gold +0.2% to $1505.90

·         Europe: London 0.0%. Paris +0.5%. Frankfurt +0.7%.

·         Asia: Japan +1.4%. Hong Kong -0.5%. China -0.5%. India -0.5%.