End-of-Day Market Summary for November 17, 2011
This is your Benzinga news summary and traders' summary for Thursday, November 17, 2011, covering headlines from Thursday's trading session.
Today at market close, the Dow Jones Index traded down about 134.86 points or 1.13%, the S&P 500 traded 1.68% lower, the Nasdaq Composite Index traded down 1.96%, and the U.S. dollar trades slightly higher near the $78.50 level.
Earlier today, Piper Jaffray upgraded Hollysys Automation (NASDAQ: HOLI) to Overweight and Stifel Nicolaus upgraded Lululemon Athletica (NASDAQ: LULU) to Buy. View all of today's upgrades here.
Deutsche Bank downgraded Perry Ellis (NASDAQ: PERY) to Hold and JP Morgan downgraded Rambus (NASDAQ: RMBS) to Neutral. View all of today's downgrades here.
Overseas, European markets ended their trading session lower. Britain's FTSE 100 lost 1.56%, Germany's DAX decreased by 1.07% and France's CAC 40 slid by 1.78% on the session. Asian stocks ended their session mixed. China's Shanghai Index lost 0.19%, Japan's Nikkei 225 increased by 0.19%, and the Hang Seng index slid by 0.76%.
On the economic calendar, Housing Starts came in at 628K versus an estimate of 620K; Initial Jobless Claims came in at 388K versus an estimate of 395K; Continuing Jobless Claims came in at 3608K versus an estimate of 3635K; Philadelphia Fed number came in at 3.6 versus an estimate of 9. On the commodity front, gold and silver futures traded mixed today, with gold trading about 0.02% lower today. Energy futures are mixed as well, with crude oil down over 3.2% near the $99.30 level and gasoline futures are trading lower by about 4.3%. Natural Gas futures are higher by about 3.2% and copper futures are trading over 0.6% lower.
On the earnings front this afternoon, Gap (NYSE: GPS) Reports Q3 EPS $0.38 vs $0.36 Est; Revenues $3.59B vs $3.61B Est; Salesforce (NYSE: CRM) Reports Q3 EPS $0.34 vs $0.31 Est; Revenues $584.3M vs $571.42M Est; Marvell Technology Group (NASDAQ: MRVL) Reports Q3 EPS $0.40 vs $0.39 Est; Revenues $950.4M vs $942.78M Est; Dolby Laboratories (NYSE: DLB) Reports Q4 EPS $0.81 vs $0.60 Est; Revenues $243.80M vs $231.36M Est.
In corporate news, General Dynamics (NYSE: GD) announced that it was awarded $395 million for helping develop the Egyptian Abrams Tank.
Lender Processing Services (NYSE: LPS) announced that it has been cleared from legal inquires by the Nevada attorney general. Previously, there was speculation that foul play occurred in the company's foreclosure proceeding process.
Gap (NYSE: GPS) announced that it will be repurchasing $500 million of its common stock, effective immediately.
Today's movers include:
Zoll Medical Corp (NASDAQ: ZOLL) +22.4% after reporting positive Q4 earnings
ACCO Brands Corp (NYSE: ABD) +23.7% after announcing that MeadWestvaco is divesting one of its units and merging it with ACCO
Rambus (NASDAQ: RMBS) +23.4% after traders pushed the stock down over 60% yesterday due to losing an antitrust ruling
Perry Ellis (NASDAQ: PERY) -35.4% after releasing poor 2012 guidance
Ternium (NYSE: TX) -18% after announcing that it will be purchasing a 26% stake in a Brazilian Industrials Firm
KEMET Corp (NYSE: KEM) -14% after downgrading 2011 guidance and being downgraded by several investment banks
This concludes your news summary for November 17, 2011.
