Financial Breakfast: Morning News Summary for October 17, 2011

This is your Benzinga news summary and traders' outlook for Monday, October 17, 2011, covering headlines from overnight and Monday's pre-market session.

Today in domestic pre-market trading, U.S equity futures are trading slightly lower. At last check, Dow futures are lower by about 5 points or 0.04% and the U.S. dollar trades higher near the $77.25 level.

Earlier this morning, Goldman Sachs upgraded Caterpillar (NYSE: CAT) to Buy and Jefferies upgraded Cummins (NYSE: CMI) to Buy. View all of today's upgrades here.

Goldman Sachs downgraded Navistar (NYSE: NAV) to Sell and First Global downgraded Alcoa (NYSE: AA) to Underperform. View all of today's downgrades here.

Overseas, European markets are mixed in afternoon trading. Britain's FTSE 100 gained 0.25%, Germany's DAX lost 0.62% and France's CAC 40 slid 0.1% on the session. Asian stocks ended the session higher. China's Shanghai gained 0.37%, Japan's Nikkei 225 added 1.5% and Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index jumped 2%.

On the economic calendar, the Empire Manufacturing Index is due at 8:30 a.m. Industrial Production and Capacity Utilization is set to report 9:15 a.m.

On the commodity front, gold and silver futures are mixed in pre-market trading, with gold trading flat. Energy futures are lower with crude oil down about 0.15% near the $86.70 level and gasoline futures are trading lower by about 0.70%. Natural Gas futures are up about 1% and copper futures are trading about 0.35% higher this morning.

On the earnings front, Halliburton (NYSE: HAL) reported Q3 EPS of $0.94 on revenues of $6.5 billion; The Street was looking for $0.92 per share on revenues of $6.39 billion.

Hasbro (NYSE: HAS) reported Q3 EPS of $1.27 on revenues of $1.38 billion; The Street was looking for $1.31 per share on revenues of $1.45 billion.

In corporate news, Kinder Morgan Inc (NYSE: KMI) announced its plans to buy El Paso Corp (NYSE: EP) for $20.7 billion or a 37% premium to Friday's close.

Anadarko Petroleum (NYSE: APC) today announced an agreement to pay BP (NYSE: BP) $4 billion to settle all of BP's current and future claims against Anadarko associated with the Deepwater Horizon event.

Statoil ASA (NYSE: STO) announced its plans to acquire Brigham Exploration Co (NASDAQ: BEXP) for $4.4 billion.

Philips (NYSE: PHG) announces a plan to cut 4,500 jobs as the sale of its TV business looks grim.

Benzinga's Morning Radar:

Technical Levels for Futures and Forex

This concludes your news summary for October 17, 2011.

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