MORNING COFFEE

Canada to Focus on Providing Oil for Asia. At the APEC summit Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper said that Canada would prioritize increasing its Asian energy exports.  The comment came after President Obama, in a highly political decision, delayed approval of TransCanada’s (TRP) $7 billion Keystone XL pipeline until after the 2012 election.  Many political analysts are saying the decision to delay approval of the project was a political attempt to placate Obama’s environment base.  The decision may have backfire, since unions are upset because the project would have created an estimated 20,000 new union jobs.

Upgrades

CSX Corp (CSX): Sterne Agee raised their rating from Neutral to Buy and placed a target price of $26.00 on the company. Pre-market: 22.60 +0.11 (0.49%)

Caterpillar (CAT): Goldman Sachs raised their rating from Buy to Conviction Buy and placed a target price of $118.00 on the company. Pre-market: 97.11 +0.98 (1.02%)

Colgate Palmolive (CL): CLSA raised their rating from Sell to Underperform and raised their target price from $82.00 to $91.00. Pre-market: 88.90 -0.27 (-0.30%)

Downgrades

Amgen (AMGN): Leerick lowered their rating from Outperform to Market Perform. Pre-market: 57.51 -0.35 (-0.60%)

Hershey (HSY): Argus lowered their rating from Buy to Hold. Pre-market: 56.25 -0.74 (-1.30%)

Pfizer (PFE): Leerick lowered their rating from Outperform to Market Perform and maintained a target price of $21.00. Pre-market: 19.82 -0.17 (-0.85%)

Telefonica (TEF): JP Morgan lowered their rating from Overweight to Neutral. Pre-market: 19.17 -0.25 (-1.29%)

Earning Reports:

Dynergy (DYN): Reported EPS of -$0.61 missing estimates by -$0.32. Pre-market: 2.86 -0.09 (-3.05%)

Lowe’s (LOW): Reported EPS of $0.35 beating estimates by +$0.02. Pre-market: 22.70 -0.41 (-1.77%)

Markets: 
Futures at 7:40: Dow -0.35%. S&P -0.55%. Nasdaq -0.39%. Crude -0.86% to $98.12. Gold -0.46% to $1779.80.

Europe: London -0.48%. Paris -1.38%. Frankfurt -1.13%. 

Asia: Japan +1.05% to 8603.7. Hong Kong +1.94% to 19508. China +1.92% to 2529. India -0.43% to 17119.