Morning Coffee Pre-Market Wall Street News

Bids for Hostess Brands Due Today. Bidders have until 5:00 pm EST today to submit their bids for Hostess Brands.  The bankruptcy court has set this Wednesday for the auction of the beloved makers of Twinkie, Fruit Pies and Ding Dongs.  Reports say that Apollo Global Management (APO), food executive Dean Metropoulos, Hurst Capital, Silver Point Capital, and Mexico's Grupo Bimbo (GRBMF) are all interested bidders.

Upgrades

Affiliated Managers Group (AMG): ResearchTeam raised their rating from Reduce to Accumulate.

Best Buy (BBY): Piper Jaffray raised their rating from Neutral to Overweight and raised their target price from $16.00 to $26.00. Pre-market: 20.58 +0.41 (2.03%)

Citigroup (C): UBS raised their rating from Neutral to Buy and raised their target price from $43.00 to $62.00. Pre-market: 46.82 +0.14 (0.30%)

Hain Celestial (HAIN): ResearchTeam raised their rating from Reduce to Hold.

Smithfield Foods (SFD): BofA Merrill Lynch raised their rating from Underperform to Neutral and placed a target price of $26.00 on the company. Pre-market: 25.99 +0.20 (0.78%)

Qualcomm (QCOM): ResearchTeam raised their rating from Reduce to Accumulate. Pre-market: 66.80 +0.15 (0.23%)

Downgrades

Adobe Systems (ADBE): BofA Merrill Lynch lowered their rating from Buy to Neutral and lowered their target price from $45.00 to $40.00.

Altera (ALTR): UBS lowered their rating from Buy to Neutral and placed a target price of $36.00 on the company.

Apple (AAPL): CLSA lowered their rating from Outperform to Buy and lowered their target prioce from $575.00 to $505.00

Intuit (INTU): BofA Merrill Lynch lowered their rating from Buy to Neutral and lowered their target price from $71.00 to $66.00.

Mylan (MYL): Canaccord lowered their rating from Buy to Hold and placed a target price of $33.00 on the company. Pre-market: 30.50 -0.23 (-0.75%)

NVIDA (NVDA): Susquehanna lowered their rating from Neutral to Negative. Pre-market: 12.68 -0.14 (-1.09%)

Coverage Initiated

EMC Corp (EMC): Longbow initiated coverage with a Buy rating and target price of $30.00.

NetApp (NTAP): Longbow initiated coverage with a Neutral rating. Pre-market: 34.21 0.00 (0.00%)

Seagate Tech. (STX): Longbow initiated coverage with a Neutral rating.

Western Digital (WDC): Longbow initiated coverage with a Neutral rating.

Earning Reports

Dick's Sporting Goods (DKS): Reported EPS of $1.03 missing estimates by -$0.03. Pre-market: 46.65 -3.95 (-7.81%)

Markets: 
Futures at 7:00: Dow -0.08%. S&P -0.18%. Nasdaq -0.20%. Crude -0.30% to $91.67. Gold +0.04% to $1577.60.

Europe: London +0.03%. Paris -0.50%. Frankfurt -0.38%. 

Asia: Japan +0.53% to 12349. Hong Kong 0.00% at 23091. China -0.35% to 2311. India -0.19% to 19646.