Financial Breakfast: Morning News Summary for October 27, 2011

Benzinga's Top News

• Dow Chemical (NYSE: DOW) Reported Q3 EPS $0.62 vs $0.63 Est; Revenues $15.1B vs $14.63B Est
• Procter & Gamble (NYSE: PG) Reported Q1 EPS $1.03 vs $1.03 Est; Revenues $21.92B vs $21.55B Est
• Hertz Global Holdings (NYSE: HTZ) announced that it is withdrawing its exchange offer for all outstanding shares of Dollar Thrifty Automotive Group (NYSE: DTG).
• Altria's (NYSE: MO) Board authorized a new $1 billion share repurchase program, which Altria intends to complete by the end of 2012.

Domestic Pre-Market Trading

• U.S. Equity Markets trade higher with Dow Futures up over 200 points.
• U.S. Dollar trades about 0.88% lower.

Overseas Trading

• European markets are higher in afternoon trading. Britain's FTSE 100 gained 2.5%, Germany's DAX added 4.3% and France's CAC 40 jumped 5% on the session.
• Asian stocks ended the session higher as well. China's Shanghai gained 0.35%, Japan's Nikkei 225 added 2% and Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index jumped 3.3%.
• A three-part eurozone debt deal has been agreed between European leaders. Part of the deal includes a boost of the eurozone bailout fund to $1.4 trillion.

Upgrades/Downgrades

• UBS upgraded Cisco (NASDAQ: CSCO) to Buy
• BofA upgraded Hospira (NYSE: HSP) to Buy

• Jefferies downgraded HealthSpring (NYSE: HS) to Hold
• JP Morgan downgraded Thermo Fisher (NYSE: TMO) to Neutral

On the Economic Calendar

• GDP, Personal Consumption, Initial and Continuing Jobless Claims are set to be reported at 8:30 a.m. ET.
• Pending Home Sales is due at 10:00 a.m.
• Kansas City Fed Manufacturing Index is set to report at 11:00 a.m.

Earnings

• Procter & Gamble (NYSE: PG) Reported Q1 EPS $1.03 vs $1.03 Est; Revenues $21.92B vs $21.55B Est
• Bristol-Myers Squibb (NYSE: BMY) Reported Q3 EPS $0.61 vs $0.58 Est; Revenues $5.35B vs $5.30B Est
• United Continental Holdings (NYSE: UAL) Reported Q3 EPS $2.00 vs $2.08 Est; Revenues $10.2B vs $10.14B Est
• Raytheon (NYSE: RTN) Reported Q3 EPS $1.39 vs $1.33 Est; Revenues $6.13B vs $6.38B Est
• Dow Chemical (NYSE: DOW) Reported Q3 EPS $0.62 vs $0.63 Est; Revenues $15.1B vs $14.63B Est
• Barrick Gold (NYSE: ABX) Reported Q3 EPS $1.39 vs $1.35 Est; Revenues $4.01B vs $3.88B Est

Corporate News

• Hertz Global Holdings (NYSE: HTZ) announced that it is withdrawing its exchange offer for all outstanding shares of Dollar Thrifty Automotive Group (NYSE: DTG). Hertz decided to withdraw its exchange offer at this time in light of Dollar Thrifty's plan to commence its announced share repurchase program and current market conditions.
• Ericsson (NASDAQ: ERIC) and Sony Corporation (NYSE: SNE) announced that Sony will acquire Ericsson's 50% stake in Sony Ericsson Mobile, making the mobile handset business a wholly-owned subsidiary of Sony.
• Altria's (NYSE: MO) Board authorized a new $1 billion share repurchase program, which Altria intends to complete by the end of 2012.

Commodities

• Precious metals are trading slightly lower, with gold posting losses of about 0.03%
• Energy futures are trading higher, with crude oil posting gains of about 2.5%
• Natural Gas futures are lower by about 0.7% and copper is trading higher by about 4%

Benzinga's Morning Radar

Technical Levels for Futures and Forex