MORNING COFFEE

Alcoa To Kick Off Earnings Season. Alcoa (AA) is set to kick off the Q4 earnings season after the close today.  The company announced major restructuring charges last week, and analysts expect that Q4 EPS tumbled to $0.01 from $0.24 last year with an increase in revenue to $5.78B from $5.65B. The EPS forecast for the quarter back in September stood at $0.28 but estimates have fallen due to the weakening global economy, falling demand,  increased energy costs and lower prices. Pre-market: 9.17 +0.01 (0.11%)

Upgrades

Fossil (FOSL): Brean Murray raised their rating from Hold to Buy and placed a target price of $100.00 on the company.

Lenovo (LNVGY): HSBC Securities raised their rating from Neutral to Overweight.

Comcast Corp (CMCSA): Macquarie raised their rating from Neutral to Outperform and placed a target price of $32.00 on the company. Pre-market: 24.85 +0.17 (0.67%)

Downgrades

Abercrombie & Fitch (ANF): Brean Murray lowered their rating from Buy to Hold and placed a target price of $70.00 on the company. Pre-market: 44.70 -0.21 (-0.47%)

Oracle (ORCL): BMO Capital Markets lowered their rating from Outperform to Market Perform and lowered their target price from $55.00 to $35.00. Pre-market: 26.75 -0.18 (-0.67%)

AFLAC (AFL): UBS lowered their rating from Neutral to Sell and lowered their target price from $39.00 to $34.00.

BlackRock (BLK): Goldman Sachs lowered their rating from Conviction Buy to Buy and placed a target price of $200.00 on the company. Pre-market: 179.26 +0.13 (0.07%)

Merk & Co. (MRK): Jefferies lowered their rating from Buy to Hold and lowered their target price from $40.00 to $37.00.

Coverage initiated

Timken (TKR): KeyBanc initiated coverage with a Buy rating and target price of $53.00.

Markets: 
Futures at 6:57: Dow +0.02%. S&P -0.10%. Nasdaq +0.62%. Crude -0.51% to $101.03. Gold -0.06% to $1616.00. 

Europe: London -0.01%. Paris +0.48%. Frankfurt +0.09%. 

Asia: Japan -1.16% to 8390. Hong Kong +1.47% to 18866. China +2.89% to 2226. India -0.33% to 15815.