Financial Breakfast: Morning News Summary for September 29, 2011
This is your Benzinga news summary and traders' outlook for Thursday, September 29, 2011, covering headlines from overnight and Thursday's pre-market session.
Today in domestic pre-market trading, U.S equity futures are trading higher. At last check, Dow futures are higher by about 50 points or 0.45% and the U.S. dollar trades slightly lower near the $78.38 level.
Earlier this morning, Credit Suisse upgraded ONEOK Partners (NYSE: OKS) to Outperform and JP Morgan upgraded FMC Tech (NYSE: FTI) to Overweight. View all of today's upgrades here.
JP Morgan downgraded Dril-Quip (NYSE: DRQ) to Neutral. View all of today's downgrades here.
Citigroup raised Family Dollar's (NYSE: FDO) price target to $70 from $69 and lowered Lexmark's (NYSE: LXK) price target to $30 from $38. View all other of today's analyst ratings here.
Overseas, European markets are mixed in afternoon trading. Britain's FTSE 100 lost 0.38%, Germany's DAX slid 0.34% and France's CAC 40 gained 0.61% on the session. Asian stocks ended the session mixed as well. China's Shanghai Index lost 1.15% and Japan's Nikkei 225 added 1%.
The German parliament voted earlier this morning and passed the Eurozone Bailout Fund with 523 members in favor versus 85 against it.
On the economic calendar, GDP, Personal Consumption, Initial and Continuing Claims are set to report at 8:30 a.m. Pending Home Sales is due at 10:00 a.m. and the Kansas City Fed Manufacturing Index is to report at 11:00 a.m.
On the commodity front, gold and silver futures are lower in pre-market trading, with gold trading lower by about 0.6%. Energy futures are higher with crude oil up about 0.3% near the $81.45 level and gasoline futures are trading higher by about 0.58%. Natural Gas futures are trading slightly lower and copper futures are trading about 1.5% lower this morning.
In corporate news, AutoZone (NYSE: AZO), announced its Board of Directors authorized the repurchase of an additional $750 million of the Company's common stock
Nokia (NYSE: NOK) announced the planned closure of the Cluj factory will force Nokia to cut 3,500 jobs. These personnel reductions are in addition to the measures announced in April and are expected to take effect by the end of 2012.
Yesterday, AMD (NYSE: AMD) announced that revenue guidance for the third quarter ending Oct. 1, 2011 is expected to increase 4-6% in the second quarter of 2011 compared to previous guidance of a 10% increase, plus or minus 2%.
This concludes your news summary for September 29, 2011.
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