PRE-MARKET | December 14, 2016 | #FOMC , $AAPL, $GOOGL, $AMZN, $TWTR, $AKAM, $NVDA, $IBM, $DIS, $NFLX

1. VCEL: $VCEL FDA Approves MACI for the Treatment of Symptomatic Cartilage Defects of the Knee in Adults – GN

2. NSR:  $NSR Neustar to go private in $2.9 billion deal including debt – Reuters

3. ENT, LUV:  $ENT Global Eagle Soars on Southwest Airlines $LUV Contract Extension – Zacks

4. SAGE:  $SAGE Raymond James Upgrades Sage Therapeutics to Strong Buy, $84 PT

5. SKIS:  $SKIS Peak Resorts Gains as USCIS Approves Funds Release from Escrow – SI

6. CEQP:  $CEQP Goldman Sachs Starts Crestwood Midstream at Buy, $30 PT

7. ONVO:  $ONVO Organovo Signs Exclusive Distributor Agreement With Cosmo Bio – SA

8. AKAM:  $AKAM Oppenheimer Upgrades Akamai Technologies to Outperform, $80 PT

9. FFIV:  $FFIV Citi Upgrades F5 Networks to Buy

10. NVDA:  $NVDA Evercore ISI Upgrades NVIDIA to Buy

11. RICK:  SYMBOL CORRECTION: $RICK RCI Hospitality Holdings Reports Q4 EPS of $0.31 – SI

12. RCII:  $RCII RCI Hospitality Holdings Reports Q4 EPS of $0.31 – SI

13. VRX:  $VRX Pershing Square Sells Some Valeant Shares, Seeking Tax Loss – WSJ

14. ESRX:  $ESRX Express Scripts stock gains after profit outlook – MarketWatch

15. LII:  $LII Lennox Int’l Issues Strong FY17 Guidance, Raises Low End of FY16 EPS Guidance – SI

16. IBM:  $IBM IBM Lays Out Plans to Hire 25,000 in U.S. Ahead of Trump Meeting – BBG

17. DIS, NFLX: $DIS Disney Said to Ask Other Studios to Join Digital Movie Service – BBG

18. JOY: $JOY Joy Global sales fall below expectations – MarketWatch

19. ABM: $ABM ABM Industries Q4 Earnings in Sync, ’17 View Bullish – Zacks

20. GS:  $GS Goldman Sachs Names David Solomon and Harvey Schwartz as Presidents and Co-COOs – SI

21. HTZ:  $HTZ With Icahn’s Blessing, Hertz Names A New CEO – Forbes

22. WFC:  $WFC Wells Fargo’s ‘Living Will’ Plan Is Rejected Again by Regulators – NYTimes

23. QCOM:  $QCOM JPMorgan Downgrades Qualcomm to Neutral, $70 PT

24. ALIOY, JNJ, SNY:  $SNY Sanofi in Talks to Acquire Actelion $ALIOY as Johnson & Johnson $JNJ Bows Out – SI

25. BRKR:  $BRKR JPMorgan Downgrades Bruker to Underweight, $20 PT

26. GM:  $GM China to penalize U.S. automaker for monopolistic behavior: China Daily

27. CPE:  $CPE Callon Petroleum Company Announces Common Stock Offering – PRN

28. FNBC:  $FNBC FBR Capital Downgrades First NBC Bank to Underperform, $5 PT

29. EGLE:  $EGLE Eagle Bulk Shipping Inc. Announces $100 Million Private Placement of Common Stock – PRN

1. AKAM:$AKAM Oppenheimer Upgrades Akamai Technologies to Outperform, $80 PT

2. CBS, FOXA, SKYAY:Recent Selloff In Twenty-First Century Fox Shares ‘Overdone’, Brean Upgrades To Buy

3. DV:First Analysis Upgrades DeVry $DV to Overweight

4. FFIV:$FFIV Citi Upgrades F5 Networks to Buy

5. HEOP:Keefe, Bruyette & Woods Upgrades Heritage Oaks Bancorp $HEOP to Outperform

6. KLAC:KLA-Tencor upgraded to strong buy from buy at Needham. Price target raised $19 to $95. $KLAC 12/13 close: 77.97…

7. NLSN:Morgan Stanley Upgrades Nielsen Holdings $NLSN to Overweight

8. NVDA:$NVDA Evercore ISI Upgrades NVIDIA to Buy

9. RRGB:Merrill Lynch Upgrades Red Robin Gourmet to Hold $RRGB

10. SAGE:$SAGE Raymond James Upgrades Sage Therapeutics to Strong Buy, $84 PT

1. ARAY:JPMorgan Downgrades Accuray $ARAY to Neutral

2. BRKR:$BRKR JPMorgan Downgrades Bruker to Underweight, $20 PT

3. FNBC:$FNBC FBR Capital Downgrades First NBC Bank to Underperform, $5 PT

4. LNC, MS:Morgan Stanley Downgrades Lincoln National Corp. to Hold $LNC $MS

5. NXPI, QCOM:Qualcomm downgraded to Neutral from Overweight at JPMorgan $QCOM $NXPI

6. PRTO:Cowen & Co. Downgrades Proteon to Hold $PRTO

7. QCOM:$QCOM JPMorgan Downgrades Qualcomm to Neutral, $70 PT

1. JOY:$JOY reports FQ4 earnings of 17c EPS and $656.56M Revs –

1. SRPT:Analysts track a payer revolt against Sarepta’s controversial Duchenne drug $SRPT

2. BLUE:$BLUE First Patient Treated with LentiGlobinTM Drug Product in Northstar-2 Phase 3 Trial

3. AKAO:$AKAO priced 6.5m @ $13.50 according to FlyotheWall

4. NVDA:Evercore ISI upgrades Nvidia to Buy #premarket $NVDA

1. bluebird bio Announces First Patient Treated with LentiGlobinTM Drug Product in Northstar-2 (HGB-207) Phase 3 Trial of Patients with Transfusion-Dependent β-Thalassemia

2. Analysts track a payer revolt against Sarepta’s controversial Duchenne drug

3. Uber, SpaceX/Tesla, and PepsiCo execs join Trump business council

4. Goldman Sachs (GS) Names David Solomon and Harvey Schwartz as Presidents and Co-COOs

5. FDA Approves MACI for the Treatment of Symptomatic Cartilage Defects of the Knee in Adults

1. The Times admits: by publishing hacked emails they and every media outlet became de facto agents of Russia’s agenda.

In recent days a skeptical the intelligence agencies and the two major parties have become embroiled in an extraordinary public dispute over what evidence exists that President Vladimir Putin of Russia moved beyond mere espionage to deliberately try to subvert American democracy and pick the winner of the presidential election.

were just a lot more stealthy said Kevin Mandia a former Air Force intelligence officer who spent most of his days fighting off Russian cyberattacks before founding Mandiant a cybersecurity firm that is now a division of FireEye and the company the Clinton campaign brought in to secure its own systems.

The same day the United States formally accused the Russian government of being behind the hackings in a joint statement by the director of national intelligence and the Department of Homeland Security and Trump suffered his worst blow to date with the release of a recording in which he bragged about sexually assaulting women.

2. Missed signals and slow responses let Russia mount a hacking effort to influence the election. A NYT investigation.

and Republicans must work together and across the jurisdictional lines of the Congress to examine these recent incidents thoroughly and devise comprehensive solutions to deter and defend against further cyberattacks said Senators John McCain Lindsey Graham Chuck Schumer and Jack Reed.

were just a lot more stealthy said Kevin Mandia a former Air Force intelligence officer who spent most of his days fighting off Russian cyberattacks before founding Mandiant a cybersecurity firm that is now a division of FireEye and the company the Clinton campaign brought in to secure its own systems.

The same day the United States formally accused the Russian government of being behind the hackings in a joint statement by the director of national intelligence and the Department of Homeland Security and Trump suffered his worst blow to date with the release of a recording in which he bragged about sexually assaulting women.

3. I asked Facebook for comment about the Muslim registry, and accidentally got this email

Earlier today BuzzFeed News emailed Facebook to ask whether the social networking giant would make a commitment to limit data collection that could be used for ethnic or religious targeting including a pledge not to build a registry of Muslims if asked to do so by the government.

The question of such a registry arose based on comments about Muslims and his intention to build a database of Syrian refugees.

Since the election Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach an adviser to transition team told Reuters that immigration policy group is considering reinstating the National Security Registration System NSEERS a suspended federal program used to keep a database of immigrants from countries that have a Muslim majority from to.

4. News media became “de facto instrument of Russian intelligence” by covering Podesta emails:

and Republicans must work together and across the jurisdictional lines of the Congress to examine these recent incidents thoroughly and devise comprehensive solutions to deter and defend against further cyberattacks said Senators John McCain Lindsey Graham Chuck Schumer and Jack Reed.

were just a lot more stealthy said Kevin Mandia a former Air Force intelligence officer who spent most of his days fighting off Russian cyberattacks before founding Mandiant a cybersecurity firm that is now a division of FireEye and the company the Clinton campaign brought in to secure its own systems.

The same day the United States formally accused the Russian government of being behind the hackings in a joint statement by the director of national intelligence and the Department of Homeland Security and Trump suffered his worst blow to date with the release of a recording in which he bragged about sexually assaulting women.

5. This is insane. I can’t even pick which chunk to screengrab because it’s all bananas. A rolling calamity.

and Republicans must work together and across the jurisdictional lines of the Congress to examine these recent incidents thoroughly and devise comprehensive solutions to deter and defend against further cyberattacks said Senators John McCain Lindsey Graham Chuck Schumer and Jack Reed.

were just a lot more stealthy said Kevin Mandia a former Air Force intelligence officer who spent most of his days fighting off Russian cyberattacks before founding Mandiant a cybersecurity firm that is now a division of FireEye and the company the Clinton campaign brought in to secure its own systems.

The same day the United States formally accused the Russian government of being behind the hackings in a joint statement by the director of national intelligence and the Department of Homeland Security and Trump suffered his worst blow to date with the release of a recording in which he bragged about sexually assaulting women.

6. FBI told DNC help-desk Russians were hacking. Contractor thought maybe it’s a prank call, did little. Insane story.

and Republicans must work together and across the jurisdictional lines of the Congress to examine these recent incidents thoroughly and devise comprehensive solutions to deter and defend against further cyberattacks said Senators John McCain Lindsey Graham Chuck Schumer and Jack Reed.

were just a lot more stealthy said Kevin Mandia a former Air Force intelligence officer who spent most of his days fighting off Russian cyberattacks before founding Mandiant a cybersecurity firm that is now a division of FireEye and the company the Clinton campaign brought in to secure its own systems.

The same day the United States formally accused the Russian government of being behind the hackings in a joint statement by the director of national intelligence and the Department of Homeland Security and Trump suffered his worst blow to date with the release of a recording in which he bragged about sexually assaulting women.

7. This piece on how hacked DCCC docs were used against House Dems is even more shocking than the piece on the DNC hack

But if the goal of president Vladimir Putin was to make American democracy a less attractive model to his own citizens and to neighbors then entangling congressional races in accusations of leaks and subterfuge was a step in the right direction.

The intrusions in House races in states including Pennsylvania New Hampshire Ohio Illinois New Mexico and North Carolina can be traced to tens of thousands of pages of documents taken from the which shares a Capitol Hill office building with the Democratic National Committee.

The hackers working under the name of Guccifer used social media tools to invite individual reporters to request specific caches of documents handing them out the way political operatives distribute scoops.

8. So Wikileaks/DNC hack not only weaponized attacks against Hillary but against Dems in Congress as well:

But if the goal of president Vladimir Putin was to make American democracy a less attractive model to his own citizens and to neighbors then entangling congressional races in accusations of leaks and subterfuge was a step in the right direction.

The intrusions in House races in states including Pennsylvania New Hampshire Ohio Illinois New Mexico and North Carolina can be traced to tens of thousands of pages of documents taken from the which shares a Capitol Hill office building with the Democratic National Committee.

The hackers working under the name of Guccifer used social media tools to invite individual reporters to request specific caches of documents handing them out the way political operatives distribute scoops.

9. “I don’t think you realize what you gave me,” the blogger told Guccifer 2.0. “This is probably worth millions.”

But if the goal of president Vladimir Putin was to make American democracy a less attractive model to his own citizens and to neighbors then entangling congressional races in accusations of leaks and subterfuge was a step in the right direction.

The intrusions in House races in states including Pennsylvania New Hampshire Ohio Illinois New Mexico and North Carolina can be traced to tens of thousands of pages of documents taken from the which shares a Capitol Hill office building with the Democratic National Committee.

The hackers working under the name of Guccifer used social media tools to invite individual reporters to request specific caches of documents handing them out the way political operatives distribute scoops.

10. Enroll in the