Financial Breakfast: Morning News Summary for May 17, 2012

Benzinga's Top News

• Wal-Mart Stores (NYSE: WMT) Reports Q1 EPS $1.09 vs $1.04 Est; Revenues $112.3B vs $110.50B Est
• Sears Holdings (NASDAQ: SHLD) Reports Q1 EPS $-0.31 vs $-0.67 Est; Revenues $9.27B vs $9.15B Est

Domestic Pre-Market Trading

• U.S. Equity Markets trade lower as Dow futures trade down about 3 points.
• U.S. Dollar trades about 0.23% higher.
To see more pre-market news, click here.

Overseas Trading

• European markets are lower in afternoon trading. Britain's FTSE 100 slid 1.15%, Germany's DAX fell 0.79% and France's CAC 40 declined 0.99% on the session.
• Asian stocks ended the session mixed. China's Shanghai added 1.4%, Japan's Nikkei 225 advanced 0.86%, and Hong Kong's Hang Seng slid 0.31%.
To see more overseas news, click here.

Upgrades/Downgrades

• Brean Murray Carret & Co. Upgrades Ctrip International (NASDAQ: CTRP) from Sell to Hold, Removes PT of $19
• Bank of America Upgrades Atmos Energy (NYSE: ATO) from Neutral to Buy, Raises PO from $34 to $37
To see more of today's upgrades, click here.
• Deutsche Bank Downgrades Vitamin Shoppe (NYSE: VSI) from Buy to Hold, Announces PT of $54
• Goldman Sachs Downgrades Visa (NYSE: V) from CL-Buy to Buy, Lowers PT from $142 to $1355
To see more of today's downgrades, click here.

On the Economic Calendar

• 08:30 a.m. ET - Continuing Jobless Claims
• 08:30 - Treasury Secretary Geithner Speaks
• 08:30 - Initial Jobless Claims
• 10:00 - Philadelphia Fed Manufacturing Index
• 10:00 - CB Leading Index (MoM)
• 10:30 - Natural Gas Storage
To see more economic news, click here

Earnings

• Wal-Mart Stores (NYSE: WMT) Reports Q1 EPS $1.09 vs $1.04 Est; Revenues $112.3B vs $110.50B Est
• Sears Holdings (NASDAQ: SHLD) Reports Q1 EPS $-0.31 vs $-0.67 Est; Revenues $9.27B vs $9.15B Est
To see more earnings announcements, click here.

Corporate News

• Agilent (NYSE: A) to Acquire Dako for $2.2 Billion
• Sears Holdings (NASDAQ: SHLD) Announces Plan to Pursue a Partial Spin-Off of Its Interest in Sears Canada
To see more corporate news, click here.

Commodities

• Precious metals are trading higher, with gold posting early gains of about 0.77%
• Energy futures are trading higher, with crude oil posting early gains of about 0.13%
• Natural Gas futures are trading 0.42% higher and copper is trading lower by about 0.01%
To see more commodities news, click here.




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	1346	1334	1327	1315	1308
Gold	1565	1552	1539	1527	1514
Crude	95.28	94.05	92.90	91.70	90.58
Natural Gas	2.73	2.68	2.58	2.53	2.43
EUR/USD	1.2795	1.2755	1.2718	1.2677	1.2640
US Dollar Index	81.95	81.77	81.55	81.37	81.15




Subscribe Click here to subscribe to this newsletter. Receive it daily to your inbox!