Morning Poppers (Fear Edition)

Bitcoin touched below $10,000 earlier this morning, placing the fear of God into a slew of aestheist crypto traders. For now, it appears prices have stabilized, unless of course you’re long Bitconnect — which is lower by 96% to $9 now. In terms of the billion dollar club cryptos, Siacoin (storage related) is doing best — higher by 9% over the past hour.

On the other hand, stocks continue to jog on. Futures are +140 and I’ll probably lose a little in my SOXS insurance policy this morning.

Here in Princeton, NJ, the roads are slippery — after a light dusting of snow. I suspect several automobiles will crash and be set aflame, perhaps a few might perish in the fires. But all in all, most will make it to work okay.

Here are some other important headlines.

Ross Stores target raised to $90 from $80 at Nomura
UnitedHealth target raised to $268 from $235 at Citigroup

Gappers: ASML +6.7%, JUNO +59.5% (WSJ reporting CELG / JUNO in merger talks), ADAP +8.4%, BLUE +7.1%, BLCM +6.4%, ZIOP +3.8%, NURO +72.7% (announces collaboration with GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) involving Quell Wearable Pain Relief Technology; GSK to pay the co $5 mln and up to $21.5 mln in milestones), AEZS +37.7% (enters into licensing and assignment agreement with Strongbridge (SBBP) for Macrilen (macimorelin) in the U.S. and Canada), NEWA +14.6% (Newater Technology +25% after announcing new strategic partnership with NW Blockchain Limited to jointly develop blockchain applications to use in the wastewater treatment industry)

Goldman Sachs prelim Q4 adj. EPS $5.68 vs $4.95 Capital IQ Consensus Estimate; revs $7.83 bln vs $7.64 bln Capital IQ Consensus Estimate