End-of-Day Market Summary for December 20, 2011

This is your Benzinga news summary for Tuesday, December 20, 2011, covering headlines from Tuesday's daytime trading session. Today at market close, the Dow Jones Index traded up about 337.17 points or 2.87%, the S&P 500 traded 2.98% higher, the Nasdaq Composite Index traded up 3.19%, and the U.S. dollar trades lower near the $80.25 level. Earlier today, RBC Capital upgraded MICROS Systems

to Top Pick and Standpoint upgraded Perry Ellis

to Buy. View all of

. Bank of America downgraded Red Hat

to Neutral and CLSA downgraded Schnitzer Steel

to Underperform. View all of

. Overseas, European markets ended their trading session higher. Britain's FTSE 100 gained 1.02%, Germany's DAX increased by 3.11% and France's CAC 40 rallied by 2.73% on the session. Asian stocks ended their session mixed. China's Shanghai Index tumbled by 0.12%, Japan's Nikkei 225 increased by 0.49%, and the Hang Seng index gained 0.06%. On the economic calendar, Housing Starts came in at 685K versus an estimate of 635K; Building Permits came in at 681K versus an estimate of 635K. On the commodity front,

and

futures traded lower today, with gold trading about 0.1% lower today. Energy futures are higher, however, with

up over 3.5% near the $97.40 level and

futures are trading higher by about 3.7%.

futures are higher by about 1.3% and

futures are trading over 0.2% higher. Today's earnings announcements include Nike Reports Q2 EPS $1.00 vs $0.97 Est; Revenues $5.73B vs $5.63B Est; Oracle Reports Q2 EPS $0.54 vs $0.57 Est; Revenues $8.8B vs $9.23B Est; Cintas Reports Q2 EPS $0.57 vs $0.48 Est; Revenues $1.019B vs $1.00B Est. In corporate news, Nortek

announced that

. Santarus

announced that

. Uceris will be used to treat ulcerative colitis. CR Bard

announced that

. The purchase is for strategic purchases. Today's Movers include:

This concludes your news summary for December 20, 2011.