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•    US MBA Mortgage Applications (Sep 3) W/W -1.5% vs. Prev. 2.7% (RTRS)
 
•    US ICSC Chain Stores (Sep 8) W/W -0.4% vs. Prev. 0.1% (RTRS)
 
•    US ICSC Chain Stores (Sep 8) Y/Y 1.8% vs. Prev. 2.8% (RTRS)
-    ICSC expects September comparable store sales to rise about 3%
 
•    US Redbook (Sep 8) M/M -0.1% vs. Prev. 1.0% (RTRS)
 
•    US Redbook (Sep 8) Y/Y 3.0% vs. Prev. 3.0% (RTRS)
 
DJIA

Other News
 
Chevron - Co. to acquire 70% interest and operatorship in three deepwater concessions offshore Liberia. Says has been granted approval by the Liberian government and says Liberian unit will conduct a 3-year exploratory program that is expected to begin in Q4 2010. (RTRS)
 
Boeing - Co. sees continued and "modest" revenue growth from its satellite systems unit as commercial demand grows, according to Craig R. Cooning, the unit's CEO. (WSJ)
 
Companies going Ex-Dividend: The Travelers Cos (USD 0.3600)
 
S&P 500
 
Other News
 
Abbott Laboratories - Co. has completed its acquisition of Piramal's Healthcare Solutions business. The co. believes India's pharmaceutical market will generate nearly USD 8bln in pharmaceutical sales this year, a number that is expected to more than double by 2015. Co. expects its pharmaceutical sales in India to exceed USD 2.5bln by 2020.
 
Altria - Co. still sees 2010 adjusted EPS USD 1.87-1.91 vs. Exp. USD 1.89. (briefing.com)
 
Bristol-Myers Squibb - Co. said it plans to buy Zymogenetics for USD 885mln to gain full ownership of a hepatitis C drug the companies are jointly developing. Co. says the acquisition is expected to reduce earnings about USD 0.03 a share in 2010 and about USD 0.07 per share in 2011. (Sources)
 
Texas Instruments - Nokia says co. and Broadcom to provide processors for N8 phone. (RTRS)
 
General Mills - Co. reaffirms fiscal 2011 earnings guidance, and sees Q1 results in line with expectations. Co. says economic activity and consumer confidence remain relatively weak, and co. is poised to deliver continuing sales and earnings growth in 2011 and beyond. (RTRS)
 
Illinois Tool Works - Co.’s wholly-owned subsidiary Meyercord Revenue Inc. has been acquired by SICPA Security Inks and Systems USA. The transaction will combine SICPA's international government tax platform expertise with Meyercord's experience in producing and distributing tobacco tax stamps for U.S. states and municipalities. The transaction closed on September 2nd. Financial terms were not disclosed. ITW has retained a related business that manufactures and services tax stamp application equipment. (theflyonthewall.com)
 
AIG - Co. to seek approval to list AIA on the 21st September, according to sources. (RTRS)
 
Companies going Ex-Dividend: Occidental Petroleum (USD 0.3800), Baxter International (USD 0.2900), FedEx (USD 0.1200), Kimberly-Clark (USD 0.6600), CME Group (USD 1.1500), Johnson Controls (USD 0.1300), PPL (USD 0.3500), Coca-Cola Enterprises (USD 0.0900), Textron (USD 0.0200)
 
NASDAQ 100
 
Other News
 
Google - Google TV to be rolled out globally in 2011. A co.’s employee says that the speech-recognition technology will soon give users the ability to change the channel by talking to the service. (WSJ)
 
Microsoft - Co.’s COO stock sale of 141,407 shares for an average price of USD 24.29 each on 3rd September sends bearish signal. (barrons.com)
 
Dell - Co. CFO sees relatively stable demand, and sees co. repositioning itself to high end PCs. The CFO says Enterprise Solutions were up 40% in the quarter, and expects "tailwind" from lower component costs in the second half of the year. (Sources)
 
Oracle - Co.’s CEO Larry Ellison said, "Co. has long viewed HP as an important partner. By filing this vindictive lawsuit against co. and Mark Hurd, the HP board is acting with utter disregard for that partnership, our joint customers, and their own shareholders and employees. The HP Board is making it virtually impossible for co. and HP to continue to cooperate and work together in the IT marketplace." (Sources) Elsewhere, co.’s hire of ex-Hewlett-Packard CEO, Mark Hurd, as president should pay off, says Barron’s. (barrons.com)
 
Research In Motion - Co. has confirmed reports that it has acquired software DataViz. In a statement to Digital Daily, co. said it acquired some of the assets of the developer of Documents To Go and has hired the majority of its employees "to focus on supporting the Blackberry platform." Terms of the deal were not disclosed, but co. says the transaction wasn't material to its financial results. (All Things Digital)
 
Qualcomm - Co. announces that it is on track with its commercialisation of products based on LTE TDD and has been demonstrating products utilising the technology at Expo 2010 Shanghai China. (Sources)
 
Broadcom - Nokia says co. and Texas Instruments to provide processors for N8 phone. (RTRS)
 
Altera - Co. sees Q3 revenue up 10-14% vs. Prev. guidance up 4-8%, says growth continues to be broad. Co. says it is likely that all four of the co.’s vertical markets will show sequential growth and says telecom and wireless vertical market is on track to be the fastest growing portion of the business. (RTRS)
 
Amgen - Co.’s Canada unit says Prolia (denosumab) has been approved by Health Canada for treatment as ligand inhibitor. (Sources)
 
Teva - Co. announced the publication of results from a real-life observational study of the General Practice Research Database, which revealed that asthma patients treated with QVAR (beclomethasone dipropionate HFA), either as initial therapy or with an increase (step up) in dose, had a similar or better chance of achieving asthma control as patients who were treated with fluticasone propionate (Flovent). Asthma control was achieved in the QVAR population at lower doses of drug versus those in the Flovent population. These results were published in the September issue of the Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology. (theflyonthewall.com)
 
Companies going Ex-Dividend: ADP (USD 0.3400)
 
BROKER MOVES
 
Upgrades
 
Apple - UBS raised co.’s estimates based on checks that continue to indicate strong iPad momentum. The firm notes that there is no evidence that iPad demand is impacting Mac sales. Shares are buy rated with a USD 350 price target, up from USD 340.
 
Dell - Co. upgraded to buy from outperform at Credit Agricole.
 
Costco Wholesale - Co. upgraded to buy from neutral at Goldman Sachs, price target to USD 68 from USD 62.
 
Staples - Co. upgraded to buy from neutral at Goldman Sachs, price target to USD 23 from USD 22.
 
Downgrades
 
Hewlett-Packard - UBS cuts co. to neutral from buy, price target lowered to USD 44 from USD 54.
 
Intel - UBS cuts co. to neutral from buy, price target to USD 19.50 from USD 28.
 
Visa - Bank of America cuts co. to underperform from neutral, price target lowered to USD 70 from USD 87.
 
Time Warner - Co. downgraded to hold from buy at Benchmark Co., price target to USD 34 from USD 40.
 
Baxter - Co. downgraded to sell from hold at Citigroup, price target lowered to USD 41 from USD 46.
 
Lockheed Martin - Co. downgraded to underperform from buy at BofA/Merrill, price target to USD 78 from USD 85.
 
Raytheon - Co. downgraded to neutral from buy at BofA/Merrill, price target to USD 52 from USD 55.
 
Viacom - Co. downgraded to hold from buy at Benchmark Co., price target to USD 37 from USD 42.
 
Weyerhaeuser - Co. downgraded to neutral from buy at BofA/Merrill, price target USD 19.
 
Western Digital - UBS cuts co. to neutral from buy, price target USD 28.50.
 
Pactiv - Co. downgraded to underperform from neutral at BofA/Merrill, price target USD 33.25.
 
OTHER NEWS
 
USD Index up 0.01% and CRB Index down 0.22% at 1358 BST (0758 CDT)
 
Baltic Dry Index rises 2.0% to 2,975 points. (Sources)
 
Potash - Co.’s CEO reiterates that another bid for co. will be made, calls BHP Billiton’s USD 130/share offer ‘non-starter’. (Globe and Mail)
 
**BP & the Gulf of Mexico Oil Spill**:
•    Fitch Ratings has upgraded BP from ‘BBB’ to ‘A’; Outlook Stable.
•    Co. report says no single factor caused the Macondo well tragedy.
•    Says failures involved a number of different parties which led to the explosion and says decisions made by 'multiple companies and work teams contributed to the incident.
•    Co. says bad cement and the failure of the shoe track barriers at the bottom of the well failed to contain hydrocarbons within the reservoir.
•    Furthermore, co. is undertaking a broad-scale review to further improve the safety, says has proposed a total of 25 recommendations designed to prevent a recurrence and expects some of the recommendations to be widely adopted.
•    In addition, says Halliburton and Transocean were involved alongside co., and says will invest whatever it takes to achieve improved operations safety.
•    Co.’s Russia Head says happy to talk to Russian companies about asset sales, although confirms has no plans to sell TNK-BP stake.