End-of-Day Market Summary for December 8, 2011

This is your Benzinga news summary for Thursday, December 8, 2011, covering headlines from Thursday's daytime trading session.

Today at market close, the Dow Jones Index traded down about 198.44 points or 1.63%, the S&P 500 traded 2.11% lower, the Nasdaq Composite Index traded down 1.99%, and the U.S. dollar trades slightly higher near the $78.90 level.

Earlier today, JMP Securities upgraded Alterra Capital (NASDAQ: ALTE) to Outperform and Piper Jaffray upgraded Pacific Sunwear (NASDAQ: PSUN) to Neutral. View all of today's upgrades here.

UBS downgraded NRG Energy (NYSE: NRG) to Neutral and Morgan Stanley downgraded Cree (NASDAQ: CREE) to Equal-Weight. View all of today's downgrades here.

Overseas, European markets ended their trading session lower. Britain's FTSE 100 lost 1.14%, Germany's DAX decreased by 2.01% and France's CAC 40 slid by 2.53% on the session. Asian stocks ended their session lower too. China's Shanghai Index slid by 0.13%, Japan's Nikkei 225 decreased by 0.66%, and the Hang Seng index lost 0.69%.

On the economic calendar, Initial Jobless Claims came in at 381K versus an estimate of 395K; Continuing Claims came in at 3583K versus an estimate of 3700K; Wholesale Inventories came in at 1.6% versus an estimate of 0.3%. On the commodity front, gold and silver futures traded mixed today, with gold trading about 0.04% lower today. Energy futures are mixed, however, with crude oil down over 2.5% near the $97.90 level and gasoline futures are trading lower by about 1%. Natural Gas futures are higher by about 0.5% and copper futures are trading over 0.07% lower.

On the earnings front today, Smith & Wesson Boosts Forecast; Guides Q3 Revenue $92-96M vs $101.24M Est; Coopers Reports Q4 EPS $1.46 vs $1.21 Est; Revenues $360.90M vs $356.93M Est; Comtech Telecommunications Reports Q1 EPS $0.41 vs $0.30 Est; Revenues $113.40M vs $93.50M Est.

In corporate news, Center Bancprp (NASDAQ: CNBC) announced that that it has repurchased TARP-issued warrants, worth $10 million.

Analogic Corp (NASDAQ: ALOG) announced that its Board of Directors has a stock repurchase program worth up to $30 million.

Stone Energy Corp (NYSE: SGY) announced that it will temporarily suspend operations in Louisiana, but will continue in 2012.

Today's Movers include:

E-Commerce China Dangdang (NYSE: DANG) +20.2% after announcing it will launch an e-book platform

Central European Distribution Corp (NASDAQ: CEDC) +19.2% after analysts upgraded the stock

G-III Apparel Group (NASDAQ: GIII) +17.9% after positive earnings

AMR Corp (NYSE: AMR) -31.7% after being downgraded by various Wall Street Analysts

Invacare Corp (NYSE: IVC) -28.8% on insider selling

Blyth (NYSE: BTH) -14.6% after announcing change in fiscal year from Jan 31 to Dec 31

This concludes your news summary for December 8, 2011.

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