“While Moody’s Investors Services placed the U.S. triple-A credit rating on review for a downgrade Wednesday, another rating agency may soon go several steps further.
Weiss Ratings is “very close” to downgrading U.S. government debt another notch, to “C-minus” on its own scale, just a step above junk, Martin Weiss, president of the ratings group, tells CNBC.
Moody’s and Standard & Poor’s should have ditched the triple-A rating long ago, Weiss says. ”
Comments »Upgrades
HK – Petrohawk Energy upgraded to Neutral from Sell at Lazard
CBST – Cubist Pharma target raised to $39 at Needham
TIF – Tiffany & Co target raised to $100 at Oppenheimer
AAPL – Apple tgt increased to $485 from $470 at Goldman
YUM – YUM! Brands target raised to $65 from $59 at RBC Capital Mkts
NLSN – Nielsen initiated with Buy at Lazard
TCK – Teck Resources upgraded to Outperform from Market Perform
KOS – Kosmos Energy initiated with a Market Outperform at Howard Weil
BRCD – Brocade initiated with Buy at Merriman
Downgrades
CY – Cypress Semi downgraded to Hold from Buy at Capstone
SUNH – Sun Healthcare downgraded to Market Perform from Outperform at JMP Securities
OPEN – OpenTable initiated with a Neutral at Janney
MRVL – Marvell estsimates and target lowered to $19.50 at Needham
Read more: http://www.briefing.com/InPlayEq/InPlay/LiveHeadlines.htm#ixzz1SBBjlZZW
SEED – Origin Agritech downgraded to Neutral at Chardan Capital Mkts
ENSG – Ensign Group downgraded to Market Perform from Outperform at JMP Securities
SKH – Skilled Healthcare downgraded to Market Perform from Outperform at JMP Securities
FLIR – FLIR Systems downgraded to Mkt Perform at Morgan Keegan
OZRK – Bank of the Ozarks downgraded to Hold at Stifel Nicolaus
COP – ConocoPhillips downgraded to Market Perform at Howard Weil
TGI – Triumph Group target lowered to $58 from $115 at Standpoint Research
Comments »Gapping up
C +2.9%, SINA +3%, BIDU +2.9%,VICL +10.2%, EXTR +8.8%, RECN +8.7%, YHOO +1.6%, EOG +2.4%, VICL +10.2%, AERL +10.6%, VRSN +2.7%, XCO +2.2%, ECA +2.0%, SOHU +2.1%, VMI +6.5%, SINA +3%, BEXP +3.7%, SFY +3.3%, ANGO +1.4%, COP +2.5%, BIDU +2.9%, VRSN +2.7%, COP +2.5%, SD +7%, SOHU +2.1%, DANG +2.1%, DV +1%, CRZO +5%, SWN +4.8% FST +4.7%, CHK +4.3%, SM +3.8%, DANG +2.1%, YHOO +1.6%, OPEN +1.9%, HK +61.8%, GOOG +12.3%,
Gapping down
SGEN -5.1%, RAH -4.9%, GEL -3.8%, FLIR -10%, , DCTH -8.9%, CY -1.5%, CAG -3.8%, ARTNA -3.5%, TWO -2%, PHYS -1.8%, BHP -1.1%, QLIK -4.3%,
Comments »
When are we going to let these banks stand on their own two feet ?
In the real world people and business’s go bankrupt no ?
Comments »Stress test on european banks are beginning to show there is not enough capital on hand…
Comments »European shares opened down from 0.5-1%, ahead of the latest European stress test results.
Related: S&P futures are falling, now off by 2.6, erasing earlier gains.
Comments »They cite decent macro backdrop, valuations in line with Greece and an economy not tied to its banks.
Further, they believe the Italian market has been sold off, unduly, and should be bought.
Comments »“According to police, Poole became enraged after his friend burned a chicken dinner. Poole allegedly grabbed a kitchen fillet knife and slashed the 20-year-old man’s face in three places.
The victim suffered one cut below one of his eyes and another above the lip. Naperville police Sgt. Nick Liberio said one of the slashes proved to be ‘a deep cut.'”
Read the rest here.
Comments »You have to wonder what kind of trouble were in when shit like this go down seemingly everyday.
Comments »No tax hikes may be attached to a spending plan that allows the president to raise the debt ceiling in three tranches.
It would only fail if 2/3rds of the house votes it down.
Comments »Google shares jumped after-hours after the search giant delivered a blowout quarter, beating on both earnings and revenue.
The search engine and advertising company[GOOG 528.94
-9.32 (-1.73%) said its earnings excluding items shot up to $8.74 a share from $6.45 a year earlier.
Revenue soared 36 percent to $6.92 billion from $5.09 billion a year ago.
Analysts expected Google to earn $7.85 a share on revenue of $6.55 billion, according to Thomson Reuters.
Net income increased 36 percent to $2.51 million, or $7.68 a share.
Google shares have a had a rocky week after a downgrade by Morgan Stanley, which cut its price target on the stock to $600 from $645.
“Given Google’s aggressive hiring plans, rising compensation expense, and significant advertising spend on Chrome and other Google products, we expect EBITDA margin to decline in 2011 and 2012,” a report by Morgan Stanley said.
The stock also fell during regular trading Thursday, down more than 2 percent, but rebounded more than 10 percent in after-hours trading after the report
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