MORNING COFFEE

Iran gets even closer to bomb.

Iran Makes World Look Like Fools. Once again Iran has made the world look like fools. After two days of discussions, the only thing agreed upon was to have yet another meeting.   Iran has been very good at playing this game off agreeing to meetings when the heat is turned up on their nuclear enrichment.   Over and over they have either agreed to more meetings or agreed to allow inspectors into the country, only to kick them out and call for more meetings.  By doing this they have delayed any disruption to their enrichment program that is believed to be for nuclear weapons. 

Now it may be past the point of no return and the world may be surprised by the announcement or testing of a nuclear weapon by Iran.  Israel has warned that they would strike militarily in the spring if nothing was done to stop the nuclear program. That was delayed by the announced of this past meeting.  World leaders need to wake up to the fact that Iran does not care about sanctions and the effect it has on its people.  The leaders in Iran want the bomb to control the Middle East, world oil supplies and possibly destroy Israel.  They will not stop until they have the bomb.  Iran 1 World 0.

Upgrades

Cracker Barrel (CBRL): Argus raised their rating from Hold to Buy and placed a target price of $72.00 on the company.

Salesforce.com (CRM): Oppenheimer raised their rating from Perform to Outperform and placed a target price of $180.00 on the company. Pre-market: 148.24 +2.03 (1.39%)

Illinois Tool Works (ITW): JPMorgan raised their rating from Neutral to Overweight and raised their target price from $56.00 to $66.00. Pre-market: 56.50 +0.75 (1.35%)

Eastman Chemical (EMN): JPMorgan raised their rating from Neutral to Overweight and raised their target price from $57.00 to $58.00.

Downgrades

H.J. Heinz (HNZ): JPMorgan lowered their rating from Overweight to Neutral and lowered their target price from $59.00 to $56.00. Pre-market: 52.87 -0.68 (-1.27%)

NetApp (NTAP): Argus lowered their rating from Buy to Hold. Pre-market: 28.57 -0.25 (-0.87%)

Viacom (VIAB): Caris lowered their rating from Buy to Above average and maintained their target price of $56.00 on the company. Pre-market: 48.40 0.00 (0.00%)

Coverage Initiated

Facebook (FB): Capstone Investments initiated coverage with a Hold rating and a target price of $32.00. Pre-market: 32.63 -0.40 (-1.21%)

W.W. Grainger (GWW): Wunderlich initiated coverage with a Hold rating and a target price of $216.00.

Fastenal (FAST): Wunderlich initiated coverage with a Buy rating and a target price of $51.00.

Genuine Parts (GPC): Wunderlich initiated coverage with a Hold rating and a target price of $64.00.

Cooper Tire & Rubber (CTB): BB&T initiated coverage with a Hold rating and a target price of $64.00.

Earning Reports

rue21 (RUE): Reported EPS of $0.46 beating estimates by +$0.03. Pre-market: 27.60 +0.60 (2.22%)

VeriFone (PAY): Reported EPS of $0.64 beating estimates by +$0.03. Pre-market: 40.50 -4.50 (-10.00%)

Talbots (TLB): Reported EPS of $0.02 beating estimates by +$0.04. Pre-market: 1.75 -0.81 (-31.64%)

Markets: 
Futures at 7:34: Dow -0.08%. S&P -0.22%. Nasdaq -0.15%. Crude -0.10% to $90.57. Gold +0.16% to $1560.00. 

Europe: London -0.68%. Paris -0.72%. Frankfurt -0.51%. 

Asia: Japan +0.20%. Hong Kong +0.25%. China -0.74%. India -0.03%.