Financial Breakfast: Morning News Summary for October 31, 2011

Benzinga's Top News

• Japan intervened in the currency market and sold the yen for the second time in three months.
• MF Global's (NYSE: MF) move to stay afloat has taken a turn for the worse as the company hired bankruptcy lawyers.
• Humana (NYSE: HUM) Reported Q3 EPS $2.54 vs $2.02 Est; Revenues $9.30B vs $9.25B.

Domestic Pre-Market Trading

• U.S. Equity Markets trade lower with Dow Futures down over 75 points.
• U.S. Dollar trades about 1% higher.

Overseas Trading

• European markets are lower in afternoon trading. Britain's FTSE 100 slid 0.9%, Germany's DAX lost 1.2% and France's CAC 40 slid 1.6% on the session.
• Asian stocks ended the session lower as well. China's Shanghai lost 0.21%, Japan's Nikkei 225 slid 0.7% and Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index lost 0.77%.
• Japan intervened in the currency market and sold the yen for the second time in three months after Monday saw it hit another record high against the dollar. Japan's finance minister said that they would continue to step into the market until it was satisfied with the results.

Upgrades/Downgrades

• Deutsche Bank upgraded Weyerhaeuser (NYSE: WY) to Hold
• JP Morgan upgraded Arkansas Best (NASDAQ: ABFS) to Neutral

• Global Equities downgraded Salesforce (NYSE: CRM) to Equal-Weight
• Auriga downgraded MEMC Electronic (NYSE: WFR) to Hold

On the Economic Calendar

• Chicago Purchasing Manager Index is set to be reported at 9:45 a.m. ET.
• Dallas Fed Manufacturing Index is due at 10:30 a.m.

Earnings

• Humana (NYSE: HUM) Reported Q3 EPS $2.54 vs $2.02 Est; Revenues $9.30B vs $9.25B
• Honda (NYSE: HMC) Reported Q2 EPS $0.44, May Not Be Comparable to $0.39 Est; Revenues $24.6B vs $25.39B Est
• Auxilium Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ: AUXL) Reports Q3 EPS $(0.08) vs $(0.21) Est; Revenues $66.7M vs $66.83M Est

Corporate News

• Netflix (NASDAQ: NFLX) and Disney-ABC Television Group (NYSE: DIS) announced that they entered into an extension of their previous existing licensing agreement.
• MF Global's (NYSE: MF) move to stay afloat has taken a turn for the worse as the company hired bankruptcy lawyers. Shares have since been halted in the United States as investors wait for an official announcement of bankruptcy or some sort of asset sale.
• Ball Corporation (NYSE: BLL) announced that it has agreed to repurchase approximately $100 million of its outstanding common stock.
• Pacira Pharmaceuticals (Nasdaq: PCRX) announces that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration has approved EXPAREL.

Commodities

• Precious metals are trading lower, with gold posting losses of about 1.3%
• Energy futures are trading lower, with crude oil posting losses of about 0.75%
• Natural Gas futures are lower by about 0.5% and copper is trading lower by about 2.75%

Benzinga's Morning Radar

Technical Levels for Futures and Forex