Shocking revelations have surfaced the Obama Administration using the NSA and
other government agencies to spy on millions of Americans. Under a program with
the NSA called PRISM the government has “direct access” to the servers of Apple
(AAPL), AOL (AOL), Facebook (FB), Google (GOOG), Microsoft
(MSFT), Paltalk, Skype, Yahoo (YHOO), and YouTube. Through this
access the NSA is data mining key words, phrases, photos and more.
This comes on the news that the NSA
has also been monitoring every call made through AT&T (T), Sprint (S), and
Verizon (VZ). The call monitoring
includes who you called, when you called, the location of your call, how often
you called and who those people called. Together, the service providers have
314.6M wirelesss and landline accounts. Yesterday in testimony Attorney General
Eric Holder refused to answer when questioned by a member of congress as to whether
they are or have been monitoring any member of Congress’s phone calls.
Additionally, reports are breaking
that the NSA's operations also encompass your purchase information from unnamed
credit-card providers.
Many are now saying that these
actions are a direct violation of both the first and second amendments and that
this government and administration is out of control.
This shocking news comes on the heels
of several scandals. The IRS scandal where the IRS targeted conservative,
religious and Jewish groups with audits, the AP and Fox News wire tapping scandal, the Benghazi
attack scandal in which a U.S Ambassador and 4 other were killed, and
the Fast & Furious gun running scandal, in which hundreds of Mexican
citizen have been killed.
Upgrades
Abercrombie & Fitch
(ANF): BofA
Merrill Lynch raised their rating from Neutral to Buy and placed a
target price of $60.00 on the company.
Bayer AG (BAYRY): BNP Paribas raised their rating
from Neutral to Outperform.
Broadcom (BRCM): Macquarie raised their rating from
Neutral to Outperform and raised their target price from $35.70 to
$40.80. Pre-market: 35.34 +0.38 (1.09%)
Brocade Communications (BRCD): ISI Group raised their rating from Neutral to Buy and placed a target price of $7.50
on the company. Pre-market: 5.55 +0.15 (2.78%)
Tyson Foods (TSN): Stephens raised their rating from Equal Weight to Overweight and raised their target
price from $26.00 to $30.00.
Yum! Brands (YUM): UBS raised their rating from Neutral to Buy and raised their target price from $73.00 to $80.00. Pre-market: 72.15 +1.03 (1.45%)
Downgrades
Arch Coal (ACI): Raymond James lowered their rating from Market Perform to Underperform. Pre-market: 5.10 -0.01 (-0.20%)
Intel (INTC): Piper Jaffrey lowered their rating from Neutral to Underweight and lowered their target
price from $21.00 to $20.00. Pre-market: 24.55 -0.10 (-0.41%)
Iron Mountain (IRM):
Stifel lowered their rating from Buy to Hold. Pre-market: 29.06 -5.34 (-15.52%)
James River Coal (JRCC): Raymond James lowered their rating from Market Perform to Underperform. Pre-market: 2.43 -0.43 (-15.03%)
Sprint Nextel (S): Nomura lowered their rating from Buy to Neutral. Pre-market: 7.34 0.00 (0.00%)
VMware (VMW): Drexel Hamilton lowered their rating from Buy to Hold. Pre-market: 71.00 -0.83 (-1.16%)
Coverage Initiated
Bank of America (BAC): Macquarie initiated coverage with an
Underperform rating and target price of $12.00. Pre-market: 13.28 +0.08 (0.61%)
Citigroup (C): Macquarie initiated coverage with an
Outperform rating and target price of $62.00. Pre-market: 51.30 +0.47 (0.92%)
Goldman Sachs (GS): Macquarie resumed coverage with a Neutral
rating. Pre-market: 160.70 +1.02 (0.64%)
Morgan Stanley (MS): Macquarie initiated coverage with an Outperform rating and target
price of $30.00. Pre-market: 25.66 +0.25 (0.98%)
Qualcomm (QCOM): Topeka initiated coverage with a Hold
rating and target price of $65.00. Pre-market: 63.23 +0.26 (0.41%)
Rambus (RMBS): Topeka initiated coverage with a Buy
rating and target price of $10.00.
Take-Two (TTWO): Stifel initiated coverage with a Buy rating and target
price of $21.00. After Hours: 16.29 +0.21 (1.31%)
Earning Reports:
Quiksilver (ZQK):
Reported EPS of -$0.12 missing estimates by -$0.16. Pre-market: 6.90 -0.77 (-10.04%)
Thor Industries (THO): Reported EPS of $0.82 missing estimates by -$0.06. After
Hours: 42.50 +1.26 (3.06%)
Vail Resorts (MTN): Reported EPS of $2.66
missing estimates by -$0.09. After Hours: 59.50 -2.66 (-4.28%)
Markets:
Futures at 7:53: Dow -0.06%. S&P -0.06%.
Nasdaq -0.06%. Crude +0.46% to
$95.20. Gold -0.45% to $1409.40.
Europe:
London -0.16%.
Paris -0.10%. Frankfurt -0.27%.
Asia: Japan -0.21% to
12878. Hong Kong -1.21% to 21575. China -1.39% to 2211.
India -0.46% to 19429.
Posts
