End-of-Day Market Summary for October 24, 2011
This is your Benzinga news summary and traders' summary for Monday, October 24, 2011, covering headlines from Monday's trading session.
Today at market close, the Dow Jones Index traded up about 105.3 points or 0.89%, the S&P 500 traded 1.29% higher, the Nasdaq Composite Index traded up 2.35%, and the U.S. dollar trades flat near the $76.30 level.
Earlier today, Stifel Nicolaus upgraded Duke Realty (NYSE: DRE) to Buy and Deutsche Bank upgraded Saks Incorporated (NYSE: SKS) to Hold. View all of today's upgrades here.
Piper Jaffray downgraded Teva Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ: TEVA) to Neutral and Stifel Nicolaus downgraded NewBridge Bancorp (NASDAQ: NBBC) to Hold. View all of today's downgrades here.
Overseas, European markets ended their trading session higher. Britain's FTSE 100 increased by 1.08%, Germany's DAX gained 1.41% and France's CAC 40 rallied by 1.55% on the session. Asian stocks ended their session higher as well. China's Shanghai Index gained 2.31%, Japan's Nikkei 225 rallied by 1.90%, and the Hang Seng index increased by 4.14%.
On the economic calendar, the Chicago Fed Activity Index came in at 8:30am. It came in at -0.22 while estimates were -0.10 and the prior number was -0.43. On the commodity front, gold and silver futures traded higher today, with gold trading about 1.01% higher today. Energy futures are mixed, however, with crude oil up over 4.49% near the $91.37 level and gasoline futures are trading lower by about 0.05%. Natural Gas futures are lower by about 0.9% and copper futures are trading over 7% higher.
On the earnings front this morning, Kimberly Clark (NYSE: KMB) Reported Q3 EPS $1.26 vs $1.26 Est; Revenues $5.4B vs $5.31B Est; Caterpillar (NYSE: CAT) Reported Q3 EPS $1.71 vs $1.55 Est; Revenues $15.72B vs $15.03B Est.
In corporate news, Neuralstem (NYSE: CUR) announced that received FDA approval for a treatment for Lou Gehrig's disease. Traditionally, treatments were only delivered via the lumbar region, but current studies are investigating other areas.
Harris Corporation (NYSE: HRS) announced that received a $20 million contract from the US Army to develop radios for ambush vehicles.
AuRico Gold (NYSE: AUQ) and Northgate Minerals Corp (NYSE: NXG) announced that shareholders of both companies of a merger. Shareholders of both companies voted approximately 99% in favor.
Today's movers include:
HealthSpring (NYSE: HS) Up 33.74% on Cigna (NYSE: CI) Takeover Announcement.
Exelis (NYSE: XLS) Up 23.37% on Positive Phase 3 Thyroid Trial Data.
RightNow (NASDAQ: RNOW) Up 19.17% on Oracle (NASDAQ: ORCL) Takeover Announcement.
SXC Health Solutions (NASDAQ: SXCI) Down 22.62%.
This concludes your news summary for October 24, 2011.
