Financial Breakfast: Morning News Summary for October 14, 2011
This is your Benzinga news summary and traders' outlook for Friday, October 14, 2011, covering headlines from overnight and Thursday's pre-market session.
Today in domestic pre-market trading, U.S equity futures are trading higher. At last check, Dow futures are higher by about 80 points or 0.73% and the U.S. dollar trades flat near the $77.30 level.
Earlier this morning, Jefferies upgraded ADTRAN (NASDAQ: ADTN) to Buy. Vew all of today's upgrades here.
Citigroup downgraded Ecolab (NYSE: ECL) to Neutral and downgraded FXCM (NASDAQ: FXCM) to Sell. View all of today's downgrades here.
Overseas, European markets are higher in afternoon trading. Britain's FTSE 100 added 0.7%, Germany's DAX gained 0.6% and France's CAC 40 added 0.7% on the session. Asian stocks ended the session lower. China's Shanghai lost 0.34%, Japan's Nikkei 225 slid 0.85% and Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index tumbled 1.36%.
S&P ratings downgraded Spain to 'AA-' on growth, bank risks.
On the economic calendar, the Import Price Index and Advanced Retail Sales are due at 8:30 a.m. The U of M Confidence Index is set to report at 9:55 a.m.
On the commodity front, gold and silver futures are higher in pre-market trading, with gold trading higher by about 0.4%. Energy futures are higher as well with crude oil up over 1.3% near the $85.44 level and gasoline futures are trading higher by about 1%. Natural Gas futures are relatively unchanged and copper futures are trading over 2.5% higher this morning.
On the earnings front, Mattel (NYSE: MAT) reported Q3 EPS of $0.86 on revenues of $2 billion; The Street was looking for $0.86 per share on revenues of $1.97 billion.
Yesterday, Google (NASDAQ: GOOG) reported Q3 EPS of $9.72 on revenues of $7.51 billion; The Street was looking for $8.74 per share on revenues of $7.21 billion.
In corporate news, Pier 1 Imports (NYSE: PIR) today announced its Board of Directors has authorized a new $100 million share repurchase program, effective immediately.
Hulu equity owners announce decision to terminate the Hulu sale process.
Unilever (NYSE: UL) agreed to buy 82% of Russia's beauty company Concern Kalina for EUR390 million.
Ubiquiti Networks (Nasdaq: UBNT) today announced the pricing of the initial public offering of 7,038,230 shares of common stock at a price to the public of $15.00 per share.
Benzinga's Morning Radar:
Technical Levels for Futures and Forex
| Name | Resistance-2 | Resistance-1 | Mid Pivot | Support-1 | Support-2 |
| E-Mini Dow | 11559 | 11477 | 11395 | 11313 | 11231 |
| E-Mini S&P500 | 1214 | 1206 | 1195 | 1187 | 1176 |
| E-Mini Nasdaq100 | 2364 | 2345 | 2317 | 2298 | 2270 |
| Gold | 1701 | 1685 | 1669 | 1653 | 1637 |
| Silver | 33.37 | 32.59 | 32.02 | 31.25 | 30.68 |
| Crude | 86.60 | 85.59 | 84.38 | 83.37 | 82.16 |
| Natural Gas | 3.62 | 3.58 | 3.51 | 3.47 | 3.40 |
| EUR/USD | 1.3902 | 1.3838 | 1.3761 | 1.3698 | 1.3621 |
| USD/JPY | 77.56 | 77.22 | 76.94 | 76.60 | 76.32 |
| USD/CHF | 0.9093 | 0.9036 | 0.8981 | 0.8924 | 0.8869 |
This concludes your news summary for October 14, 2011.
Want to receive the morning news summary to you inbox every morning? Click here to subscribe now.
