Russian Aggression Drives Down World Markets

Russian Aggression Drives Down World Markets. Markets around the world are lower today after Russian troops continue their military aggression against Ukraine. Military analysts say that Russian President Putin has little to fear as President Obama’s foreign policy of leading from behind had little effect in Egypt, Syria and Iran. Additionally, if the U.S. does not act in a very strong manner analysts say that China, North Korea and Iran will be emboldened to continue to act aggressively to their neighbors. Just prior to the Ukrainian invasion, Russian warships also docked in Cuba 50 miles of the coast of Florida. Some are now saying the move was a warning to Obama not to interfere in Ukraine. Russia's stock market has plunged and the country's central bank raised interest rates from 5.5% to 7%. The USD-RUB was +1.3% at 36.4489 rubles.

Upgrades:

AFLAC (AFL): ResearchTeam raised their rating from Reduce to Hold. Pre-market: 63.76 -0.32 (-0.50%)

Berkshire Hathaway (BRK.A/BRK.B): ResearchTeam raised their rating from Reduce to Hold. Pre-market: 116.44 +0.66 (0.57%)

ConoccoPhillips (COP): ResearchTeam raised their rating from Reduce to Hold. Pre-market: 66.01 -0.49 (-0.74%)

Intuit (INTU): Citigroup raised their rating from Neutral to Buy and raised their target price from $75.00 to $94.00. Pre-market: 78.15 0.00 (0.00%)

Johnson & Johnson (JNJ): ResearchTeam raised their rating from Reduce to Hold. Pre-market: 91.15 -0.97 (-1.05%)

Microsoft (MSFT): ResearchTeam raised their rating from Reduce to Hold. Pre-market: 37.87 -0.44 (-1.15%)

National Oilwell Varco (NOV): ResearchTeam raised their rating from Reduce to Hold. Pre-market: 76.45 -0.59 (-0.77%)

Nokia (NOK): Canaccord raised their rating from Hold to Buy and raised their target price from $8.00 to $10.00. Pre-market: 7.53 -0.05 (-0.66%)

Southwest Airlines (LUV): ResearchTeam raised their rating from Hold to Accumulate.

Travelers Cos (TRV): ResearchTeam raised their rating from Reduce to Hold.

Downgrades:

Autodesk (ADSK): Citigroup lowered their rating from Neutral to Sell and maintained their target price of $36.00. Pre-market: 51.30 -1.18 (-2.25%)

Brinker International (EAT): Miller Tabak lowered their rating from Buy to Hold. Pre-market: 54.45 -0.55 (-1.00%)

Infosys (INFY): RW Baird lowered their rating from Outperform to Neutral and maintained their target price of $66.00. Pre-market: 60.66 -1.01 (-1.64%)

NII Holdings (NIHD): Gabelli lowered their rating from Buy to Hold. Pre-market: 1.22 +0.07 (6.09%)

Markets: 
Futures at 8:44: Dow -0.85%. S&P -1.01%. Nasdaq -0.99%. Crude +2.04% to $104.67. Gold +1.88% to $1346.40. U.S. 10 Year +7/32 to 2.623%.

Europe: London -1.70%. Paris -2.30%. Frankfurt -2.93%. 

Asia: Japan -1.27% to 14652. Hong Kong -1.47% to 22501. China +0.92% to 2075, India -0.82% to 20947. 

#TopWealthManager #RLPaler #WallStreet #FinancialPlanning #AnalystsRatings #EarningReports #Ukraine #Crimea #RussianInvasion 

Gold Prices Fall.

Gold Prices Fall. Gold has dropped to $1200 an ounce for the first time since June after the Fed's decided to taper its QE program by $10B a month. , Gold prices have fallen over -28% this year and is currently trading at $1.201.50 down -2.74%. Silver was -3.7% at $19.32.

Upgrades:

Sirius XM (SIRI): Wunderlich raised their rating from Hold to Buy and raised their target price from $4.20 to $4.50.

Downgrades:

Ford Motor Co. (F): Craig-Hullum lowered their rating from Buy to Hold and lowered their target price from $21.00 to $16.00.

Comerica (CMA): Macquarie lowered their rating from Neutral to Underperform and placed a target price of $41.00 on the company.

JPMorgan Chase (JPM): SunTrust lowered their rating from Buy to Neutral and lowered their target price from $62.00 to $59.00.

Coverage Initiated:

Edison International (EIX): Tudor Pickering initiated coverage with an Accumulate rating.

Ralph Lauren (RL): Stephens initiated coverage with an Equal Weight rating and target price of $184.00.

Southwest Airlines (LUV): UBS initiated coverage with a Buy rating and target price of $25.00.

Standard Pacific (SPF): Sterne Agee initiated coverage with a Neutral rating and target price of $8.00.

Tiffany & Co (TIF): Stephens initiated coverage with an Equal Weight rating and target price of $95.00.

Xylem (XYL): Sterne Agee initiated coverage with a Neutral rating and target price of $32.00.

Earning Reports:

Accenture (ACN): Reported EPS of $1.15 beating estimates by +$0.05. Pre-market: 78.08 +2.46 (3.25%)

ConAgra (CAG): Reported EPS of $0.62 beating estimates by +$0.06. Pre-market: 33.09 +1.30 (4.09%)

KB Home (KBH): Reported EPS of $0.31 missing estimates by -$0.16. Pre-market: 16.95 -0.60 (-3.42%)

Oracle (ORCL): Reported EPS of $0.69 beating estimates by +$0.02. Pre-market: 35.34 +0.74 (2.14%)

Paychex (PAYX): Reported EPS of $0.43 beating estimates by +$0.01. Pre-market: 44.00 +0.68 (1.57%)

Rite Aid (RAD): Reported EPS of $0.04 in-line with estimates. Pre-market: 5.42 -0.34 (-5.90%)

Winnebago Inds (WGO): Reported EPS of $0.40 beating estimates by +$0.02. Pre-market: 31.65 +0.01 (0.03%)

Markets: 
Futures at 8:59: Dow -0.42%. S&P -0.51%. Nasdaq -0.53%. Crude -0.09% to $97.71. Gold -2.74% to $1201.50. U.S. 10 Year -13/32 to 2.944%.

Europe: London +0.87%. Paris +0.93%. Frankfurt +0.94%. 

Asia: Japan +1.74% to 15859. Hong Kong -1.10% to 22889. China -0.95% to 2128. India -0.73% to 20709. 

#RLPaler #WallStreet #PreMarket #WealthManagement#EarningReports #AnalystsRatings #Gold

Facebook Added to S&P 500. Standard & Poor’s will be adding Facebook (FB) to the S&P 500 Index at the close of trading on December 20.  It will also be added to the S&P 100. Facebook will replace test-equipment vendor Teradyne (TER) in the S&P 500 index and will replace Williams Companies (WMB) in the S&P 100 Index. Alliance Data Systems (ADS) and Mohawk Industries (MHK) will also be added to the S&P 500 replacing Abercrombie & Fitch (ANF) and JDS Uniphase (JDSU).

Upgrades:

Exxon Mobil (XOM): ISI Group their rating from Neutral to Buy and placed a target price of $105.00 on the company. Pre-market: 94.61 +0.35 (0.37%)

Intel (INTC): Nomura raised their rating from Reduce to Neutral and raised their target price of $20.00 to $24.00. Pre-market: 24.59 +0.17 (0.70%)

iRobot (IRBT): JPMorgan raised their rating from Underweight to Neutral and placed a target price of $32.00 on the company.

Micron Technology (MU): Nomura raised their rating from Neutral to Buy and raised their target price of $16.00 to $30.00. Pre-market: 22.71 +0.21 (0.93%)

Southwest Airlines (LUV): BofA Merrill Lynch raised their rating from Neutral to Buy and raised their target price of $18.00 to $23.00. Pre-market: 18.24 +0.27 (1.50%)

Downgrades:

Brown & Brown (BRO): William Blair lowered their rating from Market Perform to Underperform.

Oracle (ORCL): RBC Capital lowered their rating from Outperform to Sector Perform and placed a target price of $35.00 on the company. Pre-market: 33.75 -0.81 (-2.34%)

Texas Instruments (TXN): Nomura lowered their rating from Neutral to Reduce and placed a target price of $30.00 on the company. Pre-market: 42.35 -0.46 (-1.07%)

Coverage Initiated:

Freeport McMoRan (FCX): Bernstein initiated coverage with an Outperform rating and target price of $42.00. Pre-market: 34.60 +0.15 (0.44%)

Nucor (NUE): Bernstein initiated coverage with a Market Perform rating and target price of $56.00.

United States Steel (X): Bernstein initiated coverage with a Market Perform rating and target price of $27.00. Pre-market: 26.37 +0.10 (0.38%)

Weyerhaeuser (WY): JPMorgan initiated coverage with an Overweight rating and placed a target price of $37.00 on the company.

Earning Reports:

Ciena (CIEN): Reported EPS of $0.16 missing estimates by -$0.08. Pre-market: 20.49 -2.41 (-10.52%)

Markets: 
Futures at 7:53 Dow -0.13%. S&P -0.06%. Nasdaq -0.09%. Crude +0.22% to $97.65. Gold -1.81% to $1234.40. U.S. 10 Year -1/32 to 2.866%.

Europe: London -0.82%. Paris -0.37%. Frankfurt -0.66%. 

Asia: Japan -1.12% to 15342. Hong Kong -0.51% to 23218. China -0.06% at 2203. India -1.16% at 20926. 

#RLPaler #WallStreet #PreMarket #WealthManagement #EarningReports #AnalystsRatings

Morning Coffee Pre-Market Wall Street News

Gold & Silver Tarnished. Better than expected U.S. economic data yesterday, has sent gold and silver prices lower. Gold prices have dropped to their lowest since August 2010, and are down -3.55% this morning to $1229.80. Shares of SPDR Gold Trust (GLD) have fallen -23.79% year-to-date, while shares of iShares Silver Trust (SLV) have fallen -35.61% year-to-date. This morning spot prices for silver are off another -5.4% at $18.58. (GLD) Pre-market: 119.21 -4.26 (-3.45%) (SLV) Pre-market: 18.03 -0.88 (-4.65%)

Upgrades:

Adobe Systems (ADBE): Jefferies raised their rating from Hold to Buy and raised their target price from $45.00 to $57.00. Pre-market: 45.35 +0.98 (2.21%)

KeyCorp (KEY): BMO Capital raised their rating from Market Perform to Outperform and raised their target price from $10.00 to $13.00. Pre-market: 11.00 +0.28 (2.61%)

Pandora Media (P): Cowen raised their rating from Neutral to Outperform. Pre-market: 17.20 +0.79 (4.81%)

Downgrades:

Barrick Gold (ABX): Credit Suisse lowered their rating from Outperform to Neutral and lowered their target price from $36.00 to $20.00. Pre-market: 15.39 -0.72 (-4.47%)

Mosaic (MOS): Citigroup lowered their rating from Buy to Neutral and lowered their target price from $69.00 to $57.00. After Hours: 55.75 -0.16 (-0.29%)

NETGEAR (NTGR): Goldman Sachs lowered their rating from Neutral to Sell and lowered their target price from $33.00 to $28.00.

Southwest Airlines (LUV): Morgan Stanley lowered their rating from Equal Weight to Underweight and maintained a target price of $13.00. After Hours: 13.38 +0.03 (0.22%)

Coverage Initiated:

Google (GOOG): Janney Capital initiated coverage with a Buy rating and target price of $1050.00. Pre-market: 870.51 +4.31 (0.50%)

Orbitz Worldwide (OWW): Ascendiant initiated coverage with a Buy rating and target price of $10.00.

Earning Reports:

General Mills (GIS): Reported EPS of $0.53 in-line with estimates. Pre-market: 48.00 -0.33 (-0.68%)

Smith & Wesson (SWHC): Reported EPS of $0.44 beating estimates by +$0.01. Pre-market: 10.16 +0.17 (1.70%)

Markets: 
Futures at 7:34: Dow +0.40%. S&P +0.52%. Nasdaq +0.64%. Crude -0.21% to $95.13. Gold -3.55% to $1229.80.

Europe: London +0.97%. Paris +1.91%. Frankfurt +1.70%. 

Asia: Japan -1.04% to 12834. Hong Kong +2.43% to 20339. China -0.41% to 1952. India -0.41% to 18552.