MORNING COFFEE

Berkshire Hathaway Looking To Buy Citi Unit.  Warren Buffet’s company Berkshire Hathaway (BRK.A/BRK.B) is reportedly part of a group of investors that are in talks with Citigroup (C) consumer-lending unit OneMain Financial.  Analysts are expecting the deal to top $8 billion. The other investors in the group include Leucadia (LUK) and private-equity firm Centerbridge. BRK.B Pre-market: 76.98 -0.33 (-0.43%) C Pre-market: 42.15 -0.42 (-0.99%)

President Obama Plans Debt Limit Trick.  Reports are now saying that President Obama’s administration is planning to use a never before trick if the budget talks fail.  If used it would be a last ditch effort to keep the U.S. from defaulting on its debt.  If no agreement on raising the national debt limit is reached by the August 2 deadline the White House is planning on trying to invoke the 14^th Amendment, which some Democrats believe allows the Treasury Department to borrow so that the U.S would continue to make its interest payments to bondholders.  Additionally, they are looking at having the Federal Reserve buy the Tresuary’s gold reserves so they could pay the bills.

Upgrades

American Axle (AXL): KeyBanc Capital Markets raised their rating from Hold to Buy and placed a target price of $15.00 on the company. Pre-market: 11.38 +0.43 (3.93%)

Downgrades

B&G Foods (BGS): Piper Jaffray lowered their rating from Overweight to Neutral and lowered their target price from $21.00 to $20.00. Pre-market: 20.85 -0.31 (-1.47%)

Netflix (NFLX): Merriman lowered their rating from Buy to Neutral and placed a price range of $300.00 to $330.00 on the company. Pre-market: 286.00 -3.63 (-1.25%)

Coverage Initiated

Google (GOOG): Collins Stewart initiated coverage with a Buy rating and target price of $680.00. Pre-market: 532.44 0.00 (0.00%)

Spirit Airlines (SAVE): Dahlman Rose initiated coverage with a Buy rating and target price of $18.00. Pre-market: 12.37 +0.22 (1.81%)

Vistaprint (VPRT): Collins Stewart initiated coverage with a Neutral rating and target price of $54.00.

eBay (EBAY): Collins Stewart initiated coverage with a Buy rating and target price of $42.00.

Amazon.com (AMZN): Collins Stewart initiated coverage with a Neutral rating and target price of $180.00. Pre-market: 212.00 -1.19 (-0.56%)

Baidu.com (BIDU): Collins Stewart initiated coverage with a Buy rating and target price of $185.00. Pre-market: 144.00 -1.87 (-1.28%)

TD Ameritrade (AMTD): Citigroup initiated coverage with a Hold rating and target price of $21.00.

Coverage Reiterated/Price Target Changed

Coinstar (CSTR): Northland Securities reiterated their Outperform rating and raised their target from $67.00 to $68.00.

DuPont (DD): Ticonderoga reiterated their Buy rating and raised their target from $70.00 to $75.00. Pre-market: 54.40 -0.05 (-0.09%)

·         Futures at 9:02: Dow -0.34%. S&P -0.52%. Nasdaq -0.34%. Crude -0.82% to $96.09. Gold +0.36 at $1518.

·         Europe: London -0.74%. Paris -0.52%. Frankfurt -0.27%.

·         Asia: Japan +1.10% to 10082. Hong Kong -1.01% to 22518. China -0.21% to 2810. India -0.09% to 18727.