MORNING COFFEE

Conoco To Split Into Two Companies. 

ConocoPhillips (COP) will split into two separate publicly-traded companies.  The split is expected to be completed in 2012 and would divide the company into a Exploration & Production company and a Refining & Marketing company. Pre-market: 81.38 +6.98 (9.38%)

Moody’s Places U.S. On Review. 

After reports that President Obama stormed out of debt talks ending negotiations yesterday, Moody’s announced they had placed the U.S.’s AAA rating on review for a possible downgrade.  Other rating agencies have said that they would consider downgrading the U.S. debt rating if any payments on the debt were missed.  Moody’s is the first agency to begin reviewing the rating and if they downgrade the debt rating it would be the first time since 1917.

Upgrades

Williams Sonoma (WSM): Goldman Sachs raised their rating from Neutral to Convection Buy and raised their target price from $43.00 to $44.00.

Downgrades

Quest Diagnostics (DGX): RBC Capital lowered their rating from Outperform to Sector Perform.

Coverage Initiated

Infosys (INFY): Needham initiated coverage with a Buy rating and target price of $75.00. Pre-market: 61.75 +0.49 (0.81%)

Cognizant Tech (CTSH): Needham initiated coverage with a Buy rating and target price of $100.00.

Fiat S.p.A. (FIATY): Goldman Sachs initiated coverage with a Buy rating.

EMC Corp. (EMC): Merriman initiated coverage with a Buy rating and a price target range of $34.00 - $38.00.

Earning Reports

JPMorgan (JPM): Reported Q2 EPS of $1.27 beating estimates by +$0.07 on revenue of $27.4 billion. Pre-market: 40.66 +1.04 (2.62%)

Marriott International (MAR): Reported Q2 EPS of $0.37 in-line with estimates on revenue of $2.97 billion. Pre-market: 35.30 -1.84 (-4.95%)

Yum! Brands (YUM): Reported Q2 EPS of $0.66 beating estimates by +$0.05 on revenue of $2.8 billion. Pre-market: 57.30 +1.72 (3.09%) 

·         Futures at 7:55: Dow +0.21%. S&P +0.30%. Nasdaq +0.53%. Crude +0.29% at $98.35. Gold +0.28% to $1590.00.

·         Europe: London -0.67%. Paris -0.87%. Frankfurt -0.48%.

·         Asia: Japan -0.27% to 9936. Hong Kong +0.06% to 21940. China +0.54% to 2810. India +0.12% to 18618.