US futures firmly in the green at this 7AM hour, following European markets higher. In Asia, the Shanghai rallied 5.75% after China pulled out the heavy guns that saw securities regulators banning shareholders with large stakes in listed firms from selling. Overnight, oil rose more than 1% breaking its 5 session losing streak.
NEWS:
- CSII: discloses that it faces a whistleblower lawsuit, that the company was involved in kickbacks and filing false claims
- IBM: IBM’s New Chip Is Four Times as Powerful as Today’s Best Silicon, reports gizmodo
- ANTH: announces public offering of common stock
- REGN: SNY: Praluent Injection Phase 3 meets primary endpoint
- FB: TWTR: Live streaming app Meerkat announces the ability to sign up on the platform through Facebook instead of Twitter, a feature that lets you invite those watching your stream to take over that stream
ON THE ECONOMIC CALENDAR:
- VARIOUS TIMES: Chain Store Sales
- 8:30AM: Weekly Jobless Claims
- 9:45AM: Bloomberg Consumer Comfort Index
- 10:15AM: Fed’s Brainard speaks on regulatory reform ( a voting member)
- 10:30AM: EIA Natural Gas Inventory
- 12:30PM: Fed’s George speaks on “Monetary Policy and Economic Outlook” (not a voting member)
- 1PM: $13B, 30 Year Note Auction
- 4:30PM: Money Supply and Fed Balance Sheet
EARNINGS:
- PEP: Q2 EPS of $1.32 beats by $0.08.Revenue of $15.92B beats by $90M: raises FY15 core EPS view to up 8% from up 7%
- WBA: FQ3 EPS of $1.02 beats by $0.15.Revenue of $28.79B misses by $840M: raises FY15 adjusted EPS to $3.70-$3.80 vs. consensus $3.64
RECAP OF NOTABLE EARNINGS FROM LAST NIGHT:
- AA: Q2 EPS of $0.19 misses by $0.04.Revenue of $5.9B beats by $110M: free cash flow for the quarter $205M
- WDFC: FQ3 EPS of $0.75 misses by $0.01.Revenue of $92.49M misses by $6.91M
NOTABLE EARNINGS AFTER THE CLOSE TODAY:
- CUDA, HELE, PSMT, VOXX
ANALYSTS’ RATINGS: CHANGES:
UPGRADES:
- PNRA: upgrade: sell to neutral: Goldman:$172
- MBLY: upgrade: neutral to outperform: Baird: pt raised from $47 to $73
- JBHT: upgrade: neutral to buy: Longbow
DOWNGRADES:
- DNKN: downgrade: buy to neutral: Goldman: $55
- SHAK: downgrade: neutral to sell: Goldman: $37
- AMGN: downgrade: buy to neutral: UBS: $165
- REGN: downgrade: neutral to sell: UBS: $500
INITIATIONS:
- P: initiated: outperform: Northland: $20
- ENV: initiated: outperform: Northland: $50
- GWB: initiated: overweight: JP Morgan: $30
- RARE: initiated: outperform: JMP Securities: $119
PRICE TARGET CHANGES:
- TWX: pt raised from $107 to $108: Topeka Capital
- EA: pt raised from $69 to $72: Piper Jaffray
- NFLX: pt raised to $750: Nomura
- HALO: pt raised from $21 to $28: UBS
- BMRN: pt raised to $155: UBS
- DDD: pt cut from $18 to $16: Piper Jaffray
- CYOU: pt cut from $34 to $28: Summit Research
- URI: pt cut from $123 to $110: Piper Jaffray