MORNING COFFEE

Stock Futures Point Lower. U.S. stock futures point to a lower opening across the board in a continuation of the disappointing Fed minutes released yesterday. In a nutshell the Fed is taking a wait and see attitude on the economy before taking additional action to stimulate the economy.  The wait and see stance disappointed Wall Street which was looking for a more aggressive Fed stance to stimulating the economy.

The FOMC release said “A few members expressed the view that further policy stimulus likely would be necessary to promote satisfactory growth in employment and to ensure that the inflation rate would be at the Committee’s goal. Several others noted that additional policy action could be warranted if the economic recovery were to lose momentum, if the downside risks to the forecast became sufficiently pronounced, or if inflation seemed likely to run persistently below the Committee’s longer-run objective.”

Upgrades

Chevron (CVX): JPMorgan Chase raised their rating from Underweight to Neutral and placed a target price of $120.00 on the company. Pre-market: 104.30 -0.55 (-0.52%)

Walt Disney (DIS): Wells Fargo raised their rating from Market Perform to Outperform and raised their target range from $44.00-$46.00 to $56.00-$58.00. Pre-market: 47.27 0.00 (0.00%)

Downgrades

Red Hat (RHT): Oppenheimer lowered their rating from Outperform to Perform. Pre-market: 50.70 -0.66 (-1.29%)

Hormel Foods (HRL): Janney Capital lowered their rating from Neutral to Sell and lowered their target price from $27.00 to $25.00.

SuperValu (SVU): Longbow lowered their rating from Buy to Neutral. Pre-market: 3.34 -1.95 (-36.86%)

Coverage Initiated/Resumed

United Parcel Service (UPS): Goldman Sachs resumed coverage with a Neutral rating and target price of $77.00.

Expeditors International (EXPD): Goldman Sachs initiated coverage with a Sell rating and target price of $35.00.

SAP AG (SAP): Oppenheimer resumed coverage with a Perform rating. Pre-market: 59.39 +2.66 (4.69%)

EMC Corp. (EMC): Caris initiated coverage with a Above Average rating and target price of $27.00.

FedEx (FDX): Goldman Sachs resumed coverage with a Buy rating and target price of $102.00.

Adobe Systems (ADBE): Janney Capital initiated coverage with a Buy rating and target price of $38.00. Pre-market: 30.00 -0.20 (-0.66%)

Union Pacific (UNP): Goldman Sachs resumed coverage with a Neutral rating and target price of $124.00.

Earning Reports

Fastenal (FAST): Reported EPS of $0.38 beating estimates by +$0.01. Pre-market: 39.81 0.00 (0.00%)

Infosys (INFY): Reported EPS of $0.73 missing estimates buy -$0.01. Pre-market: 38.95 -4.67 (-10.71%)

Progressive (PGR): Reported EPS of $0.19 missing estimates buy -$0.08. Pre-market: 19.61 -0.94 (-4.57%)

Markets: 
Futures at 8:25: Dow -0.63%. S&P -0.67%. Nasdaq -0.61%. Crude -1.45% to $84.58. Gold -1.0% to $1559.90.

Europe: London -1.04%. Paris -0.52%. Frankfurt -0.70%. 

Asia: Japan -1.48%. Hong Kong -2.03%. China +0.46%. India -1.47%.