Jefferies analyst Jason Gammel downgraded Occidental Petroleum to Hold from Buy and lowered his price target for the shares to $66 from $74. The company's hostile counter-offer for Anadarko (APC) is a "risky but perhaps necessary move against a better-capitalized bidder for a company that rejected its initial overtures," Gammel tells investors in a research note. The analyst, however, thinks Occidental shares could come under further pressure regardless of whether it is ultimately successful in its Anadarko bid or not. He believes the market has already priced in a higher bid from Chevron (CVX). And if Occidental is the successful bidder for Anadarko, the effect on per-share metrics will be highly accretive, but the balance sheet will be highly levered, Gammel writes. As such, he believes the "risks outweigh the potential short-term rewards" over the next 12 months for Occidental shares.

Notable companies reporting before tomorrow's open, with earnings consensus, include Exxon Mobil (XOM), consensus $2.20... Chevron (CVX), consensus $2.87... AbbVie (ABBV), consensus $2.23... HCA Healthcare (HCA), consensus $5.01... Colgate-Palmolive (CL), consensus 81c... Charter (CHTR), consensus $7.92... AutoNation (AN), consensus $4.27.

Chevron announced that its 50% owned affiliate Tengizchevroil has safely commenced operations at its Wellhead Pressure Management Project, or WPMP, at the Tengiz oil field in Kazakhstan. TCO achieved this milestone by converting its first metering station at Tengiz to low pressure and activating the associated Pressure Boost Facility, or PBF. This marks important progress for TCO's overall expansion project at Tengiz. The WPMP is designed to maintain the existing processing plants' full capacity by lowering the flowing pressure at the wellheads and then boosting the pressure to the existing plants.