Financial Breakfast for August 24, 2011
This is your Benzinga news summary and traders' outlook for Wednesday, August 24, 2011, covering headlines from overnight and Wednesday's pre-market session.
Today in domestic pre-market trading, U.S equity futures are trading lower. At last check, Dow futures are down about 75 points and the U.S. dollar trades slightly lower near the $73.80 level.
Earlier this morning, Morgan Stanley upgraded Nucor (NYSE: NUE) to Overweight and Credit Suisse upgraded Saks (NYSE: SKS) to Neutral. View all of today's upgrades here.
Deutsche Bank downgraded United Therapeutics (NASDAQ: UTHR) to Hold and Oppenheimer downgraded Pacific Sunwear (NASDAQ: PSUN) to Perform. View all of today's downgrades here.
Wedbush lowered OmniVision's (NASDAQ: OVTI) price target to $38 from $45 and Morgan Stanley lowered ViaSat's (NASDAQ: VSAT) price target to $40 from $44. View all other of today's analyst ratings here.
Overseas, European markets are slightly higher in afternoon trading. Britain's FTSE 100 rose 0.2%, Germany's DAX gained 1% and France's CAC 40 added 0.4% on the session. Asian stocks ended the session lower. China's Shanghai Index lost 0.5%, Japan's Nikkei 225 fell 1.1%, and Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index slipped 2.1%.
Moody's Investment Service downgraded its rating on Japanese government debt by one notch to Aa3 Wednesday, citing the political environment and growing debt burden as contributors to the decision.
On the economic calendar, durable goods orders are set to be reported at 8:30 a.m. and the Housing Price and Purchase Index are due at 10:00 a.m.
On the commodity front, gold and silver futures are lower in pre-market trading, with gold trading near the $1850 an ounce level. Energy futures are lower with crude oil down near $85.50 per barrel and gasoline futures are trading lower by about 0.5%. Natural Gas and copper futures are trading flat this morning.
On the earnings front, Toll Brothers (NYSE: TOL) reported Q3 EPS of $0.25 on revenues of $394.3 million; which may not compare to The Street estimate of $0.03 per share on revenues of $406.28 million.
In corporate news, rumors circulated saying that Sprint Nextel (NYSE: S) will begin selling its own version of Apple's (NASDAQ: AAPL) popular iPhone by mid-October, the Wall Street Journal reported, citing unnamed sources.
This concludes your news summary for August 24, 2011.
