End-of-Day Market Summary for November 16, 2011
This is your Benzinga news summary and traders' summary for Wednesday, November 16, 2011, covering headlines from Wednesday's trading session.
Today at market close, the Dow Jones Index traded down about 190.57 points or 1.48%, the S&P 500 traded 1.66% lower, the Nasdaq Composite Index traded down 1.73%, and the U.S. dollar trades slightly higher near the $78.48 level.
Earlier today, Goldman Sachs upgraded Research in Motion (NASDAQ: RIMM) to Neutral. View all of today's upgrades here.
BMO Capital downgraded Abercrombie & Fitch (NYSE: ANF) to Market Perform and JP Morgan downgraded Geron (NASDAQ: GERN) to Neutral. View all of today's downgrades here.
Overseas, European markets ended their trading session mixed. Britain's FTSE 100 lost 0.15%, Germany's DAX decreased by 0.33% and France's CAC 40 rallied by 0.52% on the session. Asian stocks ended their session lower. China's Shanghai Index lost 2.45%, Japan's Nikkei 225 decreased by 0.92%, and the Hang Seng index slid by 2%.
On the economic calendar, MBA Mortgage Applications came in at -10% versus a previous number of 10.3%; Consumer Price Index came in at 0.3% versus an estimate of 0.1%; Industrial Production came in at 0.7% versus an estimate of 0.4%. On the commodity front, gold and silver futures traded lower today, with gold trading about 0.6% lower today. Energy futures are mixed as well, with crude oil up over 2.4% near the $101.80 level and gasoline futures are trading higher by about 0.4%. Natural Gas futures are lower by about 1.7% and copper futures are trading over 0.4% lower.
On the earnings front this afternoon, Hot Topic (NASDAQ: HOTT) Reports Q3 EPS $0.07 vs $0.07 Est; Revenues $175.80M vs $179.15M Est; NetApp (NASDAQ: NTAP) Reports Q2 EPS $0.63 vs $0.59 Est; Revenues $1.51B vs $1.53B Est; Petsmart (NASDAQ: PETM) Reports Q3 EPS $0.50 vs $0.48 Est; Revenues $1.50B vs $1.49B Est; Applied Materials (NASDAQ: AMAT) Reports Q4 EPS $0.21 vs $0.19 Est; Sales $2.18B vs $2.15B Est.
In corporate news, Micron Technologies (NASDAQ: MU) confirmed that it has prevailed in an antitrust lawsuit against Rambus (NASDAQ: RMBS). Micron Tech was cleared of all liabilities alleged by Rambus. Rambus traded down over 60% on the news.
Alnylam Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ: ALNY) announced that it has granted Sylentis a license to its InterfeRx drug. Alynylym will receive upfront and milestone payments, although specific amounts were undisclosed.
Bristol-Meyers Squibb (NYSE: BMY) and AstraZeneca (NYSE: AZN) released positive analysis of clinical trial data for an experimental Type 2 diabetes drug, Dapagliflozin.
This concludes your news summary for November 16, 2011.
