Morning Coffee Pre-Market Wall Street News

U.S. Stock Futures Higher Ahead of FOMC Meeting. U.S. stock futures are higher before the opening as traders anxiously await the beginning of the FOMC meeting. The two day policy meeting is scheduled to begin today. Wall Street will be waiting for comments on the direction of the economy, interest rates and the potential winding down of the Fed’s bond buying program. Additionally, the inflation data of May is scheduled to be released today. Economists estimates are that the CPI rose +0.2% month-over-month after falling -0.4% in April, with the main driver of inflation being food and energy cost.

Upgrades:

Daimler AG (DDAIF): Natixis raised their rating from Hold to Buy.

Flir Systems (FLIR): Raymond James raised their rating from Market Perform to Strong Buy and placed a target price of $33.00 on the company.

Downgrades:

Charles River Labs (CRL): Goldman Sachs lowered their rating from Neutral to Sell. Pre-market: 42.40 -0.81 (-1.87%)

HSBC Holdings PLC (HBC): Citigroup lowered their rating from Buy to Neutral. Pre-market: 54.53 +0.74 (1.38%)

Williams Cos. (WMB): Goldman Sachs lowered their rating from Conviction Buy to Buy and placed a target price of $40.00 on the company. Pre-market: 33.00 -0.64 (-1.90%)

Coverage Initiated:

Huntington Ingalls (HII): Stifel initiated coverage with a Hold rating.

LinkedIn (LNKD): Pacific Crest initiated coverage with an Outperform rating and target price of $215.00. Pre-market: 179.21 +1.62 (0.91%)

T-Mobile U.S. (TMUS): Canaccord initiated coverage with a Hold rating and target price of $22.00.

Earning Reports:

FactSet (FDS): Reported EPS of $1.15 missing estimates by -$0.11. Pre-market: 99.01 -4.75 (-4.58%)

Korn/Ferry (KFY): Reported EPS of $0.32 beating estimates by +0.01.

Markets: 

Futures at 7:00: Dow +0.21%. S&P +0.09%. Nasdaq +0.35%. Crude -0.02% to $97.75. Gold -0.68% to $1373.90.

Europe: London +0.85%. Paris -0.05%. Frankfurt +0.05%. 

Asia: Japan -0.20% to 13007. Hong Kong 0.00% at 21226. China +0.14% to 2159. India -0.53% at 19223.