MORNING COFFEE

Fitch Warns On U.S. Debt Rating. Yesterday the Congressional super committee came up with a super failure by not agreeing on $1.2 trillion in budget cuts. The announcement prompted Fitch to reiterate its warning that the failure would probably lead to "a revision of the U.S.'s rating outlook to negative." S&P and Moody's said they are currently maintaining their ratings on the U.S. debt since $1.5 trillion in automatic spending cuts have been triggered.

Bank Regulators Warn BofA of Enforcement Action. Bank regulators have warned Bank of America (BAC) that it could face a public enforcement action unless it makes more progress on strengthening its books. Regulators are pointing to the MOU from 2009 which identified governance, risk and liquidity management as problems that had to be fixed. An enforcement action would put the bank under greater scrutiny and additional restrictions by regulators. Pre-market: 5.39 -0.10 (-1.82%)

Upgrades

News Corp (NWSA): Susquehanna raised their rating from Neutral to Positive and placed a target price of $20.00 on the company.

Coverage Initiated

Tesla Motors (TSLA): Wunderlich initiated coverage with a Hold rating and target price of $30.00.

Xilinx (XLNX): Lazard Capital initiated coverage with a Neutral rating.

Altera (ALTR): Lazard Capital initiated coverage with a Buy rating and target price of $45.00.

Deere & Co (DE): CLSA initiated coverage with a Buy rating and target price of $90.00. Pre-market: 72.45 -0.23 (-0.32%)

Microsoft (MSFT): ThinkEquity initiated coverage with a Hold rating and target price of $26.00. Pre-market: 24.91 -0.09 (-0.36%)

Downgrades

Amgen (AMGN): BMO Capital lowered their rating from Outperform to Market Perform and lowered their target price from $73.00 to $58.00. Pre-market: 54.75 -0.22 (-0.40%)

Earning Reports

Chico’s FAS (CHS): Reported EPS of $0.18 missing estimates by -$0.02.

Cracker Barrel (CBRL): Reported EPS of $1.09 beating estimates by +$0.05. Pre-market: 45.99 +0.06 (0.13%)

Hormel Foods (HRL): Reported EPS of $0.43 beating estimates by +$0.01.

Medtronic (MDT): Reported EPS of $0.84 beating estimates by +$0.02. Pre-market: 34.45 +1.18 (3.55%)

Markets: 
Futures at 8:21: Dow -0.15%. S&P -0.21%. Nasdaq -0.26%. Crude -1.21% to $97.45. Gold +0.86% to $1692.70. 

Europe: London +0.01%. Paris 0.00%. Frankfurt -0.28%. 

Asia: Japan -0.40% to 8315. Hong Kong +0.14% to 18252. China -0.10% to 2413. India +0.75% to 16065.