PRE-MARKET | October 31, 2016 | $CVX, $AAPL, $CHKP, $MACK, $QCOM, $POT, $TEVA, $BIDU, $LOW, #Halloween #traders

1. CTL, LVLT: $LVLT CenturyLink $CTL to Buy Level 3 for $34 Billion in Cash, Stock – BBG

2. BHI, GE:  $BHI GE $GE to Combine Oil and Gas Business With Baker Hughes – WSJ

3. SXC, SXCP:  $SXCP Suncoke Energy $SXC Announces Proposal to Acquire SunCoke Energy Partners for ~$17.80 – SI

4. CHKP:  $CHKP Israel’s Check Point Software third-quarter profit tops estimates – Reuters

5. CNX, NBL:  $CNX CONSOL Energy, Noble Energy $NBL to Separate Marcellus Shale Joint Venture – SI

6. HMC:  $HMC Honda Boosts Profit Forecast as SUVs Lead China Sales Surge – BBG

7. SNE:  $SNE Sony Cuts Forecast on Impairment for Sale of Battery Unit – BBG

8. AAPL, GS, TWX:  $TWX Goldman Sachs $GS pushes Apple $AAPL to make rival bid for Time Warner – NYPost

9. REGN, SNY: $REGN FDA rejects Sanofi/Regeneron’s sarilumab $SNY – PharmaTimes

10. HFC, SU: $SU HollyFrontier $HFC to buy Suncor’s Petro-Canada lubricants unit – Reuters

11. STJ: $STJ St. Jude Medical Announces ILUMIEN III Trial Met Primary Endpoint – Street Insider

12. BCLI: $BCLI Brainstorm Cell Therapeutics Receives U.S. Patent Related to Mesenchymal Stem Cells Technology – SI

13. MACK: $MACK Merrimack Generic Doxorubicin Hydrochloride Liposome Injection ANDA Accepted for Review by FDA

14. CAH: $CAH Cardinal Health beats profit expectations but cuts outlook – MarketWatch

15. DO: $DO Diamond Offshore Announces Third Quarter 2016 Results – PRNewswire

16. ARIA: $ARIA ARIAD Announces U.S. FDA Acceptanct of Brigatinib NDA; Request for Priority Review Granted – SI

17. LL: $LL Lumber Liquidators Announces Third Quarter 2016 Financial Results – PRNewswire

18. MEMP:  $MEMP Memorial Production Partners to Suspend Quarterly Cash Distributions; Explore Strategic Alts – SI

1. ABX:Barrick Gold was Upgraded to a Hold Rating at Mackie Research $ABX

2. ADTN:Northland Capital Markets Upgrades ADTRAN $ADTN to Outperform

3. AGN, HZNP, TEVA:Mizuho cut $hznp PT ahead of earnings. CS upgrades $teva to outperform. Barclays reiterates = weight for $agn.

4. AIV:Mizuho Securities Upgrades Apartment Investment Management $AIV to Buy

5. AIV, EQR:Aimco, Equity Residential upgraded at Mizuho

6. AYI:Wells Fargo Upgrades Acuity Brands $AYI to Outperform

7. CMPR:Cimpress was Upgraded to a Hold Rating at Axiom $CMPR

8. CVX:$CVX upgraded to Buy at Goldman Sachs

9. DE:$DE upgraded to Outperform at Baird

10. EQR:Mizuho Securities Upgrades Equity Residential $EQR to Neutral

11. FBHS:JPMorgan Upgrades Fortune Brands Home $FBHS to Overweight

12. HUBS:JPMorgan Upgrades HubSpot Inc $HUBS to Overweight

13. INVA:$inva upgraded to outperform by Cowen.

14. JWN, M:Macy’s upgraded to buy from hold, Nordstrom downgraded to hold from buy at Deutsche Bank. $M $JWN #retail #stocks

15. KMT:Goldman Sachs Upgrades Kennametal $KMT to Buy

16. M:Macy’s on the move after Deutsche Bank upgrade

17. MPLX:Jefferies Upgrades MPLX LP $MPLX to Buy

18. NXPI, QCOM:Nomura Securities Upgrades Qualcomm $QCOM to Buy; NXP $NXPI to Add a Ton of Scale

19. POT:Atlantic Equities Upgrades Potash Corp. $POT to Neutral

20. QCOM:$QCOM upgraded to Buy at Nomura

21. RGC:UPDATE: B. Riley Upgrades Regal Entertainment $RGC to Buy

22. RRC:Goldman Sachs Upgrades Range Resources $RRC to Conviction Buy

23. TEVA:$TEVA upgraded to Outperform at Credit Suisse – PT cut $52 from $59

24. TWX:Time Warner upgraded to outperform from market perform at FBR. Price target raised from $97 to $104. $TWX 10/28 clo…

25. WSFS:Keefe, Bruyette & Woods Upgrades WSFS Financial $WSFS to Outperform

1. AN:BofA/Merrill Lynch Downgrades AutoNation Inc. $AN to Neutral

2. AON:RBC Capital Downgrades Aon Corp $AON to Sector Perform

3. BIDU:$BIDU downgraded to Neutral at Macquarie

4. CSTR:Compass Point Downgrades Coinstar $CSTR to Neutral

5. EVEP:UPDATE: Stifel Downgrades EV Energy Partners $EVEP to Hold

6. GTLS:Chart Industries was Downgraded to a Hold Rating at Evercore ISI $GTLS

7. HD:$HD downgraded to neutral at PiperJaffray

8. JWN:Deutsche Bank Downgrades Nordstrom Inc to Hold $JWN

9. JWN, M:Macy’s upgraded to buy from hold, Nordstrom downgraded to hold from buy at Deutsche Bank. $M $JWN #retail #stocks

10. LOW:Lowe’s was Downgraded to a Hold Rating at Piper Jaffray $LOW

11. MEMP:UPDATE: Stifel Downgrades Memorial Production Partners $MEMP to Sell

12. MEOH:UBS Downgrades Methanex $MEOH to Sell

13. NKE:$NKE downgraded to Underperform at Bank of America

14. PERI:Benchmark Downgrades Perion Network Ltd. $PERI to Hold

15. WCIC:Raymond James Downgrades WCI Communities $WCIC to Market Perform

16. XOM:$XOM downgraded to Neutral at GoldmanSachs

1. ARIA:$ARIA – brigatinib PDUFA April 29, 2017.

2. TMH:Blackstone to Acquire TeamHealth Holdings $TMH in ~$6.1B Deal $$

3. SBUX:So Starbucks as a saloon… $SBUX $BWLD $$

4. CAH:$CAH Cardinal Health Q1 17 Earnings Results: -Adj EPS: $1.24 -Revenue: $32B

5. CTL:CenturyLink $CTL to Acquire Level 3 Communications $LVLT for $34B

6. OPHT:$OPHT Fovista Ph2b data published in Ophthalmology, timely before the big Ph3 binary event

1. GE to Combine Oil and Gas Business With Baker Hughes

2. Bauer ice hockey gear maker files bankruptcy in U.S. and Canada

3. TeamHealth to be Acquired by Blackstone

4. Ophthotech Announces the Publication of Fovista® in Combination with Lucentis® Phase 2b Study Results in Ophthalmology®, the Journal of the American Academy of Ophthalmology

5. ACADIA Pharmaceuticals Initiates Phase II Study of Pimavanserin in Alzheimer’s Disease Agitation

6. Why After A Massive Run, CoLucid Shares Still Look Attractive

7. MGM Resorts ready to bet up to $10 billion on Japan casino, possibly via REIT

8. CenturyLink to Buy Level 3 Communications for $25 Billion

9. GE Nears Deal to Combine Oil-and-Gas Business With Baker Hughes

Technology News

1. We’ll convert your Vines to GIFs and save the original sound. Long live the loop! Read more:

2. That moment when one of your biggest proprietary competitors uses your Open Source code …

3. “We press a button and BOOM! All the devices in the mall are infected and traceable.”

4. Apple is pulling off a variant of what I wanted at Google: secure enclaves for the user, not DRM. Kudos to Apple!

5. Careful, thorough @ow critique of the new MacBook Pro:

6. Our CEO Avishai Abrahami published an open letter in response to Matt Mullenweg:

7. Harsh and not exactly fair but also extremely accurate, on the snooze factory that is Apple

8. Four identical ports with vastly different power / bandwidth specs seems like a huge mistake.

9. How the UAE is recruiting hackers to create the perfect surveillance state

10. Your tweets are super valuable, but there’s a dark side to the Twitter firehose too