Morning Coffee Pre-Market Wall Street News

Obama to Announce New Spending Program. Tomorrow night during President Obama’s State of the Union address the President is expected to lay out a new spending program to help stimulate the lagging economy. The spending program includes investments in infrastructure, manufacturing, clean energy and education. The President is expected to get some opposition since past programs, in the President’s own words “Weren’t so shovel ready” and did little to stimulate the economy.  Additionally, Republicans are sure to bring up the massive deficit.

BlackRock Selling Herbalife Shares. Reports say that BlackRock (BLK) has slashed its holding in Herbalife (HLF) by over 20% to just 4.08%. Herbalife has been under pressure lately on claims the company is just a pyramid scheme.

Upgrades

Nike (NKE): JPMorgan raised their rating from Neutral to Overweight and raised their target price from $50.00 to $64.00. Pre-market: 55.50 +0.91 (1.67%)

AOL (AOL): RBC Capital raised their rating from Sector Perform to Outperform and raised their target price from $40.00 to $45.00. Pre-market: 34.70 +0.98 (2.91%)

VMware (VMW): Evercore raised their rating from Equal Weight to Overweight. Pre-market: 79.90 +0.71 (0.90%)

Kroger Co (KR): Goldman Sachs raised their rating from Sell to Neutral and placed a target price of $27.00 on the company.

U.S. Bancorp (USB): Stifel Nicolaus raised their rating from Sell to Hold. Pre-market: 33.83 +0.18 (0.53%)

Wells Fargo (WFC): Stifel Nicolaus raised their rating from Hold to Buy and placed a target price of $42.00 on the company. Pre-market: 35.09 +0.21 (0.60%)

Downgrades

Charles Schwab (SCHW): Citigroup lowered their rating from Neutral to Sell and lowered their target price from $15.00 to $14.00. Pre-market: 16.54 -0.35 (-2.07%)

Fossil (FOSL): The Benchmark Company lowered their rating from Buy to Hold.

KeyCorp (KEY): Stifel Nicolaus lowered their rating from Hold to Sell.

Fifth Third Bancorp (FITB): Stifel Nicolaus lowered their rating from Buy to Hold. Pre-market: 16.56 -0.05 (-0.30%)

Comerica (CMA): Stifel Nicolaus lowered their rating from Hold to Sell.

Earning Reports

Boardwalk Pipeline (BWP): Reported EPS of $0.38 beating estimates by +$0.01.

CNA Financial (CNA): Reported EPS of -$0.03 missing estimates by -$0.25.

Loews Corp (L): Reported EPS of -$0.03 missing estimates by -$0.46.

Markets: 
Futures at 7:00: Dow +0.24%. S&P +0.20%. Nasdaq +0.27%. Crude -0.23% to $95.50. Gold -0.55% to $1657.80.

Europe: London +0.33%. Paris +0.64%. Frankfurt +0.08%. 

Asia: Japan closed, Hong Kong closed, China closed. India -0.12% to 19461.