Morning Coffee Pre-Market Wall Street News

U.S. Economic Growth Stalls. GDP data for Q4 was released this morning showing that the U.S. economy has come to a standstill.  Q3 GDP came in at 3.1% and economists had estimated that Q4 GDP would slow to 1.1%. The actual Q4 GDP growth came in at -0.1% far off economist estimates and well below Q3 number. The poor data will come ahead of a FOMC policy to be announced later today. Economists expect the Fed to maintain its asset buying at $85B a month and keep its commitment to hold interest rates close to zero until unemployment drops to 6.5%.

Upgrades

EMC (EMC): Monness Crespi & Hardt raised their rating from Neutral to Buy and placed a target price of $30.00 on the company. Pre-market: 24.37 +0.19 (0.79%)

Viacom (VIAB): Cowen raised their rating from Neutral to Outperform.

Downgrades

Amazon.com (AMZN): CLSA lowered their rating from Outperform to Buy and lowered their target price from $290.00 to $265.00. Pre-market: 282.61 +22.26 (8.55%)

Exxon Mobil (XOM): Macquarie lowered their rating from Outperform to Neutral and lowered their target price from $101.00 to $99.00. Pre-market: 91.37 -0.39 (-0.43%)

Ford Motor Co (F): Craig-Hallum lowered their rating from Buy to Hold and maintained a target price of $14.00 on the company. Pre-market: 13.04 -0.10 (-0.76%)

Ford Motor Co (F): CLSA lowered their rating from Outperform to Underperform and lowered their target price from $15.00 to $14.00. Pre-market: 13.04 -0.10 (-0.76%)

Harley Davidson (HOG): Goldman Sachs lowered their rating from Buy to Neutral and lowered their target price from $58.00 to $54.00. Pre-market: 53.73 -0.79 (-1.45%)

Yum! Brands (YUM): Bernstein lowered their rating from Outperform to Market Perform and placed a target price of $72.00 on the company. Pre-market: 63.69 -0.55 (-0.86%)

Coverage Initiated

Priceline.com (PCLN): Ascendiant Capital Markets initiated coverage with a Buy rating and target price of $870.00. Pre-market: 702.79 +2.50 (0.36%)

Coverage Reiterated/Price Target Changed

Pfizer (PFE): Argus reiterated their Buy rating and raised their target price from $28.00 to $32.00. Pre-market: 27.57 -0.13 (-0.47%)

Earning Reports

Boeing (BA): Reported EPS of $1.28 beating estimates by +$0.08. Pre-market: 74.60 +0.95 (1.29%)

L-3 Comms (LLL): Reported EPS of $2.25 beating estimates by +$0.13. Pre-market: 78.30 +0.41 (0.53%)

Northrop Grumman (NOC): Reported EPS of $2.14 beating estimates by +$0.39. Pre-market: 66.00 -0.77 (-1.15%)

Phillips 66 (PSX): Reported EPS of $2.06 beating estimates by +$0.37. Pre-market: 61.50 +1.62 (2.71%)

Piper Jaffray (PJC): Reported EPS of $0.88 beating estimates by +$0.21.

Silicon Labs (SLAB): Reported EPS of $0.61 beating estimates by +$0.03.

Markets: 
Futures at 8:23: Dow -0.05%. S&P -0.25%. Nasdaq -0.23%. Crude +0.34% to $97.90. Gold +0.18% to $1664.00.

Europe: London -0.11%. Paris -0.29%. Frankfurt -0.34%. 

Asia: Japan +2.28% to 11114. Hong Kong +0.71% to 23822. China +1.00% to 2382. India +0.07% at 20005.