Before the Open (Aug 20)

Good morning. Happy Monday. Hope you had a good weekend.
The Asian/Pacific markets closed mostly up. China, Hong Kong, India, New Zealand, Indonesia and Thailand posted solid gains; the Philippines dropped. Europe, Africa and the Middle East are currently doing very well. Denmark, Poland, France, Turkey, Germany, Russia, Greece, South Africa, Finland, Norway and Israel are leading. Futures in the States point towards a positive open for the cash market.
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REPORT: LB Weekly
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Overnight Stock Movers from barchart.com…
SodaStream International Ltd (SODA +0.84%) jumped 10% in pre-market trading after the company was acquired by PepsiCo in a $3.2 billion deal.
America’s Car-Mart (CRMT +21.72%) was upgraded to ‘Buy’ from ‘Neutral’ at Janney Montgomery Scott LLC with a price target of $96.
Nike (NKE -0.37%) was upgraded to ‘Overweight’ from ‘Neutral’ at Piper Jaffray with a price target of $93.
Cboe (CBOE +0.69%) was upgraded to ‘Outperform’ from ‘Market Perform’ at Raymond James with a price target of $115.
Sempra Energy (SRE +0.72%) was upgraded to ‘Outperform’ from ‘Market Perform’ at Wells Fargo Securities with a price target of $128.
Constellation Brands (STZ +0.72%) was downgraded to ‘Negative’ from ‘Neutral’ at Susquehanna Financial with a price target of $171.
News Corp (NWSA unch) was downgraded to ‘Underweight’ from ‘Equal;-Weight’ at Morgan Stanley with a price target of $12.50.
Carbonite (CARB unch) was rated a new ‘Buy’ at Stifel with a price target of $44.
Turkey’s long-term foreign debt rating was downgraded by Moody’s Investors Service to Ba3 from Ba2 with its outlook cut to negative from watch negative, and S&P Global Ratings cut Turkey’s foreign-currency rating to B+ from BB-.
Westlake Chemical (WLK -1.38%) may initially open higher this morning after it boosted its quarterly dividend to 25 cents per share from 21 cents, higher than consensus of an increase to 22.5 cents a share.
Radius Health (RDUS -6.06%) may initially move lower this morning after holder Farallon Capital Partners LP said it reduced its stake in the company to 4.50% from an 8.99% stake reported Jun 30.
Abeona Therapeutics (ABEO -3.28%) filed to sell as much as $150 million in common stock.
Today’s Economic Calendar
11:00 Fed’s Bostic Speech
Other…
today’s upgrades/downgrades from briefing.com
this week’s Earnings from Morningstar
this week’s Economic Numbers/Reports powered by ECONODAY