Financial Breakfast: Morning News Summary for November 4, 2011

Benzinga's Top News

• Groupon, Inc. (NASDAQ: GRPN) last night announced the initial public offering of 35,000,000 shares of its Class A common stock at a price of $20 per share.
• Transatlantic Holdings (NYSE: TRH) today announced that its Board of Directors has unanimously determined to recommend that stockholders reject Validus Holdings, Ltd.'s (NYSE: VR) revised Exchange Offer.
• DTE Energy (NYSE: DTE) Reported Q3 EPS $1.07 vs $1.00 Est; Revenues $2.27B vs $2.24B Est.
• Jon Corzine Planning Resignation from MF Global.

Domestic Pre-Market Trading

• U.S. Equity Markets trade slightly lower with Dow Futures down 10 points.
• U.S. Dollar trades about 0.12% higher.

Overseas Trading

• European markets are mixed in afternoon trading. Britain's FTSE 100 added 0.6%, Germany's DAX lost 0.3% and France's CAC 40 gained 0.1% on the session.
• Asian stocks ended the session higher. China's Shanghai added 0.8%, Japan's Nikkei 225 gained 1.9% and Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index added 3.1%.
• The G-20 meeting begins today in France.

Upgrades/Downgrades

• Jefferies upgraded Kellogg (NYSE: K) to Hold.
• Wunderlich upgraded Plains All American (NYSE: PAA) to Buy.

• Morgan Stanley downgraded Coach (NYSE: COH) to Equal-Weight.
• Morgan Stanley downgraded Tiffany & Co (NYSE: TIF) to Equal-Weight.

On the Economic Calendar

• Nonfarm Payrolls, Private Payrolls, Manufacturing Payrolls and the Unemployment Rate are due at 8:30 a.m. ET.

Earnings

• DTE Energy (NYSE: DTE) Reported Q3 EPS $1.07 vs $1.00 Est; Revenues $2.27B vs $2.24B Est.
• Windstream Corp (NYSE: WIN) Reported Q3 EPS $0.19 vs $0.20 Est; Revenues $1.02B vs $1.03B Est.

Corporate News

• Groupon, Inc. (NASDAQ: GRPN) last night announced the initial public offering of 35,000,000 shares of its Class A common stock at a price of $20 per share.
• Transatlantic Holdings (NYSE: TRH) today announced that its Board of Directors has unanimously determined to recommend that stockholders reject Validus Holdings, Ltd.'s (NYSE: VR) revised Exchange Offer.
• LINN Energy (Nasdaq: LINE) announced today that it signed a definitive purchase agreement to acquire mid-continent oil and natural gas properties located primarily in the Granite Wash of Texas and Oklahoma from Plains Exploration & Production Company for a contract price of $600 million, subject to closing conditions.
• Snap-on Incorporated's (NYSE: SNA) Board of Directors increased its quarterly dividend 6.3% to $0.34 per share payable December 9, 2011, to shareholders of record on November 18, 2011.

Commodities

• Precious metals are trading lower, with gold posting losses of about 0.33%
• Energy futures are trading higher, with crude oil posting gains of about 0.7%
• Natural Gas futures are higher by about 0.75% and copper is trading higher by about 0.82%

Benzinga's Morning Radar

Technical Levels for Futures and Forex