2017 Pre-Market Movers and Social News

1. DEPO: $DEPO KKR is interested in buying opioid maker Depomed – NYPost

2. FNBC:  $FNBC First NBC Announces Appointment of Crowe Horwath as New Independent Auditor – PRN

3. XRX:  $XRX Conduent Completes Separation From Xerox – Nasdaq

4. PLX:  $PLX Protalix Bio Announces Positive Interim Results from Phase II Clinical Trial of alidornase alfa

5. FCAU, GOOGL:  $FCAU Fiat Chrysler and Google $GOOGL team on Android in-car tech – TechCrunch

6. SM:  $SM SM Energy to sell some Eagle Ford assets for $800 million – Reuters

7. KOPN:  $KOPN Kopin Enters Into Strategic Relationship With Goertek Inc. – SI

8. ALJ, DK:  $ALJ Delek $DK to buy outstanding Alon shares in all-stock deal with equity value of $464M – MW

9. MPC:  $MPC Marathon Petroleum to Accelerate Asset Drop-Down – WSJ

10. ENR:  $ENR Morgan Stanley Upgrades Energizer to Overweight, $52 PT

11. DIS:  $DIS Evercore ISI Upgrades Walt Disney to Buy

12. ALV:  $ALV Autoliv and Volvo Cars Sign Final Agreement to Form Joint Venture – AP

13. LBTYA, VOD:  $VOD Vodafone, Liberty Global $LBTYA complete Dutch JV – MW

14. AGN:  $AGN Allergan on Watch After Raising Drug Prices – SI

15. AAPL:  $AAPL POOR IPHONE 7 SALES CAUSE APPLE TO CUT PRODUCTION BY 10 PERCENT – Newsweek

16. TWTR:  $TWTR Twitter’s controversial head of China is the latest exec to leave the company – TechCrunch

17. BRK, HIG: $HIG Hartford Enters $1.5B Asbestos Reinsurance Agreement w Berkshire’s $BRK-A NICO; $650M Premium

18. GM: $GM GM’s stock falls after Trump tweet on Mexico production – Market Watch

19. ITEK:  $ITEK Inotek shares crater 65% after disappointing results from trial of glaucoma treatment – MW

1. CTL:JPMorgan Upgrades CenturyLink, Inc. $CTL to Overweight

2. CUDA:JMP Securities Upgrades Barracuda Networks $CUDA to Market Perform

3. DIS:$DIS Evercore ISI Upgrades Walt Disney to Buy

4. ENR:$ENR Morgan Stanley Upgrades Energizer to Overweight, $52 PT

5. EW:Guggenheim Upgrades Edwards Lifesciences $EW to Buy

6. GRPN:Groupon +3% on RBC upgrade

7. IHG:Barclays Upgrades InterContinental Hotels Group $IHG to Overweight

8. PCAR:Evercore ISI Upgrades PACCAR $PCAR to Buy

9. PDCO:Baird Upgrades Patterson Companies $PDCO to Outperform

10. SALT:Deutsche Bank Upgrades Scorpio Bulkers $SALT to Buy

11. SRPT:$SRPT upgraded to Buy from Neutral at Janney. PT $65

12. TWX:Evercore ISI Upgrades Time Warner $TWX to Buy

13. VZ:Verizon upgraded to Buy from Neutral at Citi $VZ

14. XRX:JPMorgan Upgrades Xerox $XRX to Overweight

1. ABC:AmerisourceBergen was Downgraded to a Hold Rating at Mizuho Securities $ABC

2. AEL:JPMorgan Downgrades American Equity Investment Life Holding $AEL to Neutral

3. ANF:Two downgrades on Abercrombie & Fitch

4. EGOV:Barrington Research Downgrades NIC Inc. $EGOV to Market Perform

5. EXR:Extra Space Storage was Downgraded to a Hold Rating at RBC Capital $EXR

6. GRUB:#GrubHub downgraded to sell from neutral at Moness Crespi. Price target $43. $GRUB

7. KRC:RBC Capital Downgrades Kilroy Realty $KRC to Sector Perform

8. MLHR:Raymond James Downgrades Herman Miller $MLHR to Underperform

9. SHOO:Jefferies Downgrades Steven Madden $SHOO to Hold

10. VFC:Piper Jaffray Downgrades VF Corp. $VFC to Neutral

1. GM:Shares of $GM briefly fall about 1% after President-elect Trump tweets about the automaker.

2. PLX:$PLX Announces Positive Interim Results From Phase II Clinical Trial of Alidornase Alfa for Treatment of Cystic Fibrosis

3. ITEK:$ITEK Announces Top-line Results for MATrX-1, First Phase 3 Trial of Trabodenoson for Glaucoma #Fail

4. SRPT:$SRPT upgraded to Buy from Neutral at Janney. PT $65

5. CLVS:$CLVS $175M offering

6. CELG:CANT $CELG Adjusting 2016 EPS to $5.93 from $5.90, Adding $0.05 to 2017, Reiterate Overweight PT 159

1. General Motors Co – GM – Stock Quotes

2. Donald J. Trump on Twitter

3. Trump threatens ‘big border tax’ on GM over Chevy Cruze production

4. Marathon Petroleum to Accelerate Asset Drop-Down

5. Inotek Announces Top-line Results for MATrX-1, First Phase 3 Trial of Trabodenoson for Glaucoma | Business Wire

1. The two most complete analyses from the US infosec community on FBI/DHS report:

The Joint Analysis Report JAR Grizzly Steppe was released yesterday as part of the White response to alleged Russian government interference in the election process.

It merely listed every threat group ever reported on by a commercial cybersecurity company that is suspected of being and lumped them under the heading of Russian Intelligence Services RIS without providing any supporting evidence that such a connection exists.

If classified an independent commission should review it because this entire assignment of blame against the Russian government is looking more and more like a domestic political operation run by the White House that relied heavily on questionable intelligence generated by a cybersecurity firm with a vested interest in selling.

2. US Govt: it’s good to release technical indicators to help defenders. But please don’t call it your evidence of attribution when it’s not.

3. Trump Promises a Revelation on Hacking but not til Tuesday or Wednesday @maggieNYT from Mar a Lago

Speaking to a handful of reporters outside his Palm Beach club Trump cast his declarations of doubt as an effort to seek the truth.

you look at the weapons of mass destruction that was a disaster and they were wrong he added referring to intelligence cited by the George Bush administration to support its march to war in.

Trump who has sought a warmer relationship with Putin has repeatedly scoffed at the notion that Russia was behind the hacking a stance at odds with members of his own party.

4. As I was just saying…. h/t @BlueShiftBlog

The Joint Analysis Report JAR Grizzly Steppe was released yesterday as part of the White response to alleged Russian government interference in the election process.

It merely listed every threat group ever reported on by a commercial cybersecurity company that is suspected of being and lumped them under the heading of Russian Intelligence Services RIS without providing any supporting evidence that such a connection exists.

If classified an independent commission should review it because this entire assignment of blame against the Russian government is looking more and more like a domestic political operation run by the White House that relied heavily on questionable intelligence generated by a cybersecurity firm with a vested interest in selling.

5. Ah, to be French… Mandated 35-hour work weeks. 5 weeks paid leave + 13 holidays. Wine with lunch. And now this…

The new employment law requires French companies with more than employees to begin drawing up policies with their workers about limiting technology usage outside the office the newspaper reported.

They remain attached by a kind of electronic leash like a dog Benoit Hamon Socialist member of Parliament and former French education minister told the BBC in May.

France we are champions at passing laws but they are not always very helpful when what we need is greater flexibility in the workplace Olivier Mathiot chief executive of PriceMinister a online marketplace told BBC News in May.

6. Probably the most promising laptop of CES 2017: Dell’s XPS 13, but with longer battery life and a 360-degree hinge.

Dell is unveiling a convertible version of its popular XPS laptop today at the Consumer Electronics Show.

Dell is claiming around hours of battery life on the FHD model and that will obviously drop significantly on the Quad HD display version.

the same carbon fiber palm rest and machined aluminium shell alongside a precision trackpad and optional Dell Active Pen for stylus input.

7. Internet shutdowns in 2016 cost India $968 million, Saudi Arabia, $465 million and Morocco $320 million.

United Nations Governments around the world shut down the internet more than times in suppressing elections slowing economies and limiting free speech.

Uganda in February there was a shutdown of social media networks by President Museveni and that again happened in Gambia in December surrounding the election Olukotun added.

According to Brookings these are conservative estimates which only take into account reductions in economic activity and not tax losses or drops in investor confidence.

8. Bitcoin tops $1,000 amid China’s new rules on cash transactions and overseas transfers

Bitcoin is used to move money across the globe quickly and anonymously and does not fall under the purview of any authority making it attractive to those wanting to get around capital controls such as China.

It is also may appeal to those worried about a lack of supply of cash such as in India where Prime Minister Narendra Modi removed bank notes from circulation in November.

The growing war on cash and capital controls is making bitcoin look like a viable if high risk alternative said Paul Gordon a board member of the UK Digital Currency Association and of Quantave a firm seeking to make it easier for institutional investors to access digital currency exchanges.

9. drumbeat for old industries using tech M&A in to survive & thrive keeps getting louder, potential for higher returns

ET In late a startup caught the attention of Ford Motor executive John Casesa who runs global strategy for the auto maker.

The startup called Chariot was growing fast and had an interesting crowdsourced reservation model a staffer told him suggesting a meeting.

One year and a million deal later the San Francisco.

10. Flight booking systems lack first factor authentication, never mind two or three factor

The codes act as pincodes for locating travel records albeit with vital differences that make them highly insecure compared with even the simple usernames and passwords that consumers use to access email or websites the researchers said.

Given only last names their bookings codes can be found over the Internet with little effort said SRLabs Karsten Nohl who with Nemanja Nikodijevic will detail their research this week at the Chaos Communications Congress Europe biggest annual event on hacking.

If the data protection laws that have been in effect since the early in the EU and Canada had been enforced travel systems would have been required to make changes that would have significantly reduced some of the vulnerabilities and that SRLabs has now demonstrated can be exploited he said.