Financial Breakfast: Morning News Summary for September 21, 2011
This is your Benzinga news summary and traders' outlook for Wednesday, September 21, 2011, covering headlines from overnight and Wednesday's pre-market session.
Today in domestic pre-market trading, U.S equity futures are trading higher. At last check, Dow futures are trading flat and the U.S. dollar trades higher near the $77.80 level.
Earlier this morning, JP Morgan upgraded AutoDesk (NASDAQ: ADSK) to Overweight and Jefferies upgraded Unilever (NYSE: UN) to Buy. View all of today's upgrades here.
JP Morgan downgraded Cabela's (NYSE: CAB) to Underweight and Piper Jaffray downgraded Pacific Biosciences (NASDAQ: PACB) to Neutral. View all of today's downgrades here.
JP Morgan raised Tyco's (NYSE: TYC) price target to $52 from $46 and Brean Murray raised DISH Networks (NASDAQ: DISH) price target to $38 from $35. View all other of today's analyst ratings here.
Overseas, European markets are lower in afternoon trading. Britain's FTSE 100 lost 0.6%, Germany's DAX tumbled 1.6% and France's CAC 40 slid 1.4% on the session. Asian stocks ended the session mixed. China's Shanghai Index jumped 2.6%, Japan's Nikkei 225 added 0.23%, and Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index slid 1%.
On the economic calendar, MBA Mortgage Applications came in at 0.6% from a 6.3% prior reading. Existing Home Sales is due at 10:00 a.m. and the FOMC Rate Decision is set to be released at 2:15 p.m.
On the commodity front, gold and silver futures are flat in pre-market trading. Energy futures are mixed with crude oil up down over $0.50 near the $86.32 level and gasoline futures are trading slightly higher by about 0.1%. Natural Gas futures are down about 0.3% and copper futures are trading about 0.2% higher this morning.
On the earnings front, General Mills (NYSE: GIS) reported Q1 EPS of $0.64 on revenues of $3.85 billion; The Street was looking for $0.62 per share on revenues of $3.81 billion. The company also reaffirmed fiscal year guidance.
In corporate news, Netflix (NASDAQ: NFLX) and Discovery Communications (NASDAQ: DISCA) today announced a two-year non-exclusive licensing agreement that allows Netflix members to instantly watch prior-season series and specials of popular series from Discovery.
Apache Corporation (NYSE: APA) said today that its subsidiary Apache North Sea Limited has agreed to acquire Exxon Mobil Corporation's (NYSE: XOM) Mobil North Sea LLC assets – including the Beryl field and related properties – for $1.75 billion.
This concludes your news summary for September 21, 2011. Want to receive the morning news summary to you inbox every morning? Click here to subscribe now.
