Financial Breakfast: Morning News Summary for March 8, 2012

Benzinga's Top News

• BOE Announces Leaves Interest Rates Unchanged at 0.50%
• Smithfield Foods SFD Reports Q1 EPS $0.69 vs $0.66 Est; Revenues $3.48B vs $3.50B Est
• Williams-Sonoma WSMReports Q4 EPS $1.17 vs $1.13 Est; Revenues $1.27B vs $1.25B Est
• Kohl's KSS Opens Eight New Stores Creating Approximately 1,000 Jobs.

Domestic Pre-Market Trading

• U.S. Equity Markets trade higher as Dow futures trade up about 100 points.
• U.S. Dollar trades about 0.47% lower.

Overseas Trading

• European markets are higher in afternoon trading. Britain's FTSE 100 added 1.35%, Germany's DAX gained 2.19% and France's CAC 40 advanced 2.11% on the session.
• Asian stocks ended the session higher as well. China's Shanghai added 1.05%, Japan's Nikkei 225 gained 2.01%, and Hong Kong's Hang Seng advanced 1.32%.

Upgrades/Downgrades

• JP Morgan Upgrades Cintas CTAS from Neutral to Overweight, Raises PT from $34 to $45
• Deutsche Bank Upgrades Axis Capital Holdings AXS from Hold to Buy, Raises PT from $33 to $38

• Collins Stewart Downgrades TotalTOT from Hold to Sell
• Wunderlich Securities Downgrades Kopin KOPN from Buy to Hold, Lowers PT from $5 to $3.5

On the Economic Calendar

• BOE Announces Leaves Interest Rates Unchanged at 0.50%
• Challenger Job Cuts is set to report at 7:30 a.m. ET
• Initial and Continuing Jobless Claims are due at 8:30 a.m.

Earnings

• Smithfield Foods SFD Reports Q1 EPS $0.69 vs $0.66 Est; Revenues $3.48B vs $3.50B Est
• Williams-Sonoma WSMReports Q4 EPS $1.17 vs $1.13 Est; Revenues $1.27B vs $1.25B Est
• Buckle Reports BKE Q1 EPS $1.18 vs $1.14 Est; Revenues $337.10M vs $335.11M Est

Corporate News

• Kohl's KSS Opens Eight New Stores Creating Approximately 1,000 Jobs.
• Williams-Sonoma WSM Announces Retirement of COO and CFO, Appointment of Acting CFO.

Commodities

• Precious metals are trading higher, with gold posting early gains of about 1.09%
• Energy futures are trading higher, with crude oil posting early gains of about 0.75%
• Natural Gas futures are higher by about 0.39% and copper is trading higher by about 1.23%

Benzinga's Morning Radar

Technical Levels for Futures and Forex

Name	Resistance-2	Resistance-1	Mid Pivot	Support-1	Support-2
E-Mini S&P 500	1360	1356	1350	1346	1340
Gold	1698	1691	1681	1674	1664
Crude	107.89	107.00	105.69	104.82	103.49
Natural Gas	2.36	2.33	2.30	2.27	2.24
EUR/USD	1.3203	1.3175	1.3135	1.3108	1.3068
US Dollar Index	80.12	79.93	79.78	79.59	79.45

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