Alcoa to Kickoff Q4 Earnings Season Today.

Alcoa to Kickoff Q4 Earnings Season Today. Alcoa (AA) will kickoff the Q4 earnings season today after the market close. Wall Street always watches very closely as since some believe that the company can give indications of how other industrial companies performed.  The first few days and weeks of earning season can be volatile as Wall Street interprets earning results.  Alcoa is expected to report Q4 EPS of $0.06 on a decline of revenue of 8.8% to %5.38 billion.   

Upgrades:

Dupont (DD): Bank of America Merrill Lynch raised their rating from Neutral to Buy and placed a target price of $70.00 on the company.

Forest Labs (FRX): Buckingham raised their rating from Neutral to Buy and raised their target price from $63.00 to $84.00.

Halliburton (HAL): Howard Weil raised their rating from Sector Perform to Outperform.

Johnson & Johnson (JNJ): Jefferies raised their rating from Hold to Buy and raised their target price from $102.00 to $108.00.

McDonalds (MCD): Morgan Stanley raised their rating from Equal Weight to Overweight and raised their target price from $93.00 to $115.00.

Smith & Wesson (SWHC): Sidoti raised their rating from Neutral to Buy.

Downgrades:

Buffalo Wild Wings (BWLD): Morgan Stanley lowered their rating from Overweight to Underweight and lowered their target price from $144.00 to $143.00.

Diamond Offshore Drilling (DO): Howard Weil lowered their rating from Outperform to Sector Perform.

ENSCO (ESV): Howard Weil lowered their rating from Focus List to Outperform.

Family Dollar (FDO): MKM Partners lowered their rating from Buy to Neutral.

Yum! Brands (YUM): Morgan Stanley lowered their rating from Overweight to Equal Weight and lowered their target price from $81.00 to $77.00.

Coverage Initiated:

Bank of America (BAC): Nomura initiated coverage with a Buy rating and target price of $19.00.

Charles Schwab (SCHW): Nomura initiated coverage with a Neutral rating and target price of $23.00.

Citigroup (C): Nomura initiated coverage with a Buy rating and target price of $70.00.

CVS Caremark (CVS): Leerink initiated coverage with a Outperform rating and target price of $85.00.

E*Trade (ETFC): Nomura initiated coverage with a Buy rating and target price of $23.00.

Goldman Sachs (GS): Nomura initiated coverage with a Neutral rating and target price of $172.00.

JPMorgan Chase (JPM): Nomura initiated coverage with a Neutral rating and target price of $61.00.

Morgan Stanley (MS): Nomura initiated coverage with a Neutral rating and target price of $34.00.

Raymond James (RJF): Nomura initiated coverage with a Buy rating and target price of $60.00.

TD Ameritrade (AMTD): Nomura initiated coverage with a Neutral rating and target price of $32.00.

Western Union (WU): BTIG initiated coverage with a Buy rating and target price of $23.00.

Earning Reports:

Family Dollar (FDO): Reported EPS of $0.68 missing estimates by -$0.01.

Supervalu (SVU): Reported EPS of $0.13 in-line with estimates.

Markets: 
Futures at 9:14: Dow +0.24%. S&P +0.10%. Nasdaq +0.16%. Crude +0.34% to $92.63. Gold +0.05% to $1226.10. U.S. 10 Year +4/32 to 2.978%.

Europe: London -0.02%. Paris -0.14%. Frankfurt +0.17%.

Asia: Japan -1.50% to 15880. Hong Kong -0.91% to 22787. China -0.82% to 2028. India -0.08% to 20713. 

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