Morning Coffee Pre-Market Wall Street News

Bank of America Pays for Racial Discrimination Against Black Employees. Bank of America (BAC) will pay $160 million after it was sued by black employees. The lawsuit was brought by hundreds of black financial advisers, who accused the bank of not giving them the same opportunities as white advisors in the areas of account distributions and investment teams. Pre-market: 14.09 -0.02 (-0.14%)

Upgrades:

USG Corp (USG): Longbow raised their rating from Neutral to Buy and placed a target price of $28.00 on the company. Pre-market: 23.33 +0.27 (1.17%)

Downgrades:

Taser International (TASR): JPMorgan lowered their rating from Overweight to Neutral and placed a target price of $12.00 on the company.

Tiffany & Co (TIF): CLSA lowered their rating from Outperform to Underperform. Pre-market: 79.50 -1.32 (-1.63%)

Coverage Initiated:

Applied Materials (AMAT): Northland Securities initiated coverage with an Outperform rating and target price of $19.00. Pre-market: 15.04 -0.03 (-0.19%)

Arch Coal (ACI): FBR Capital initiated coverage with an Outperform rating and target price of $6.00. Pre-market: 4.65 +0.03 (0.65%)

Laboratory Corp (LH): Craig-Hallum initiated coverage with a Buy rating and target price of $116.00.

Lam Research (LRCX): Northland Securities initiated coverage with an Outperform rating and target price of $59.00.

Earning Reports:

Chico’s FAS (CHS): Reported EPS of $0.27 missing estimates by -$0.05. Pre-market: 15.67 +0.34 (2.22%)

Express (EXPR): Reported EPS of $0.20 in-line with estimates. Pre-market: 21.75 +1.95 (9.85%)

Joy Global (JOY): Reported EPS of $1.70 beating estimates by +$0.34. Pre-market: 48.80 -2.51 (-4.89%)

Zale (ZLC): Reported EPS of- $0.25 beating estimates by +$0.58. Pre-market: 10.49 +1.53 (17.08%)

Markets: 
Futures at 8:45: Dow +0.09%. S&P +0.04%. Nasdaq +0.09%. Crude +1.28% to $110.38. Gold +0.44% to $1426.40. U.S. 10 Year -15/32 2.767%.

Europe: London -0.60%. Paris -0.49%. Frankfurt -1.54%. 

Asia: Japan -1.51% to 13338. Hong Kong -1.60% to 21525. China -0.11% to 2101. India +0.16% to 17996.