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Standard & Poor’s Global Ratings said Monday it is maintaining its A-plus rating on debt issued by United Parcel Service Inc. but revising the outlook to negative from stable, on concerns about the company’s pension deficit, which S&P views as debt. “Although we expect the company’s earnings and cash flow to improve from the growth of its e-commerce business and management’s cost-reduction initiatives, we don’t anticipate that UPS’ pension deficit will decline materially through 2017 because we expect that interest rates will remain low over this period,” the rating agency said in a statement. S&P is expecting UPS’ funds-from- operations-to-debt ratio to remain in the high 30% area through 2017, compared with its previous expectation of a rate of 40% to 55%. If it should fall below 30%, “we could downgrade the company,” said the statement. UPS shares were slightly higher in afternoon trade, and are up 13% in the year to date, while the S&P 500 has gained 6.6%.

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AMC Theatres and Dolby Laboratories [S: DLB] said Monday that they are putting Dolby Cinema installations in 100 theaters by the end of 2017, which is seven years ahead of schedule. The two companies said they may also increase the implementation of Dolby, which includes specific sound and visual effects, to more theaters. Currently Dolby Cinema is in 22 AMC locations. Shares of AMC were up 0.5% Monday.

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Delta Air Lines Inc. said late Monday morning that after an early-morning power outage disrupted global service, the system had improved some, though delays and cancellations were still ongoing. About 300 flights were canceled, and 800 of the day’s 6,000 scheduled flights had occurred as of 10:30 am on Monday, the company said. Customers should expect delays and cancellations, and accurate flight status online and from Delta representatives may be delayed, according to Delta. The company has said that customers with canceled or significantly delayed flights are entitled to a refund, and that customers without canceled flights may make a free one-time change to their ticket. After news of the outage, which occurred at 2:30 am Monday in Atlanta, the company’s shares slumped 1.8% in pre-market trade. Delta stock dropped 9.8% over the last three months, compared with a 6.1% rise in the S&P 500 .

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Shares of Bristol-Myers Squibb Co. dropped 1.8% in morning trade Monday, after disappointing trial results announced last week prompted Credit Suisse to downgrade the drug giant. Analyst Vamil Divan cut his rating to neutral, after being at outperform since at least October 2013. The stock had plunged 16% on Friday, the second-biggest one-day loss since it went public in January 1972, after a late-stage trial of its lung cancer treatment surprisingly failed to meet its primary endpoint. “While we are not fans of reacting to news, Friday’s developments are too significant and surprising for us to maintain our bullish stance on [Bristol-Myers],” Divan wrote in a note to clients. Divan also upgraded Merck & Co. to outperform after being at neutral since June 2014. Merck’s stock, which lost 2.2% in morning trade, had soared 10% on Friday, the fifth-biggest gain in its history, as investors saw Bristol-Myers’ drug failure as a boon for Merck’s rival drug. Year to date, shares of Bristol-Myers has lost 9.6%, Merck has rallied 18%, the SPDR Health Care Select Sector ETF has gained 3.9% and the Dow Jones Industrial Average has climbed 6.4%.

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Chipotle Mexican Grill Inc. announced Monday that it has partnered with Guild Education to enhance its education benefits. Guild Education offers online classes and degrees from universities including Bellevue University and Western Governors University. Chipotle offers employees $5,250 in annual tuition reimbursement, a benefit that was expanded to hourly employees in 2015. When combined with $5,815 in federal grants for qualified undergraduates and the discounted tuition now offered through Guild Education, Chipotle says participants can complete a degree for as low as $250 per year. Chipotle has more than 60,000 employees. The restaurant chain’s shares are up 0.6% in Monday trading, but down 16% for the year to date. The S&P 500 Index is up 6.9% for the year so far.

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From:: Stock Market News

J.P. Morgan Chase & Co.’s stock was downgraded Monday by Citigroup analyst Keith Horowitz, who said he was no longer bullish at current levels as he believes investors and analysts are a bit too optimistic. He downgraded the stock to neutral, after being at buy since April 2014. Horowitz believes the banking giant is one of the most favored among buy side and sell side analysts, with more than three quarters of analysts rating it the equivalent of a buy. As a result, he said he believes 2017 and 2018 earnings estimates are about 2% too high. “In this environment, you want to rent not buy the banks,” Horowitz wrote in a note to clients. “In a prolonged low rate-growth environment, we believe the banks are more trading range stocks and we believe the time to add to positions is when sentiment is negative.” The stock was up 0.2% in morning trade. It has run up 7.4% over the past month to close Friday in positive territory for the year for the first time. Meanwhile, the Dow Jones Industrial Average has gained 6.6% year to date.

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From:: Stock Market News