Financial Breakfast: Morning News Summary for November 17, 2011

Wall Street was laid out behind a 12-foot-high wood stockade across lower Manhattan in 1685. The stockade was built to protect the Dutch settlers from British and Native American attacks.

Benzinga's Top News

• Sears Holdings (NASDAQ: SHLD) Reports Q3 EPS $(2.57) vs $(2.29) Est; Revenues $9.57B vs $9.57B Est.
• JM Smucker (NYSE: SJM) Reports Q2 EPS $1.29 vs $1.40 Est; Revenues $1.51B vs $1.49B Est.
• Walmart (NYSE: WMT) announces free shipping on all electronics this holiday season.

Domestic Pre-Market Trading

• U.S. Equity Markets trade lower with Dow Futures down about 60 points.
• U.S. Dollar trades about 0.45% higher.

Overseas Trading

• European markets are lower in afternoon trading. Britain's FTSE 100 lost 2.5%, Germany's DAX slid 2.1% and France's CAC 40 fell 1.9% on the session.
• Asian stocks ended the session mixed. China's Shanghai fell 0.19%, Japan's Nikkei 225 added 0.19% and Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index slid 0.76%.

Upgrades/Downgrades

• Piper Jaffray upgrades Hollysys Automation (NASDAQ: HOLI) to Overweight, PT raised to $11.
• Jefferies upgrades tw telecom (NSADAQ: TWTC) to Buy, PT raised to $22

• Deutsche Bank downgrades WR Berkley (NYSE WRB) to Sell, PT raised to $30.
• Bank of America downgrades Guess (NYSE: GES) to Underperform, PO lowered to $31.

On the Economic Calendar

• Housing Starts, Building Permits, Initial and Continuing Jobless Claims are set to report at 8:30 a.m. ET.
• Philadelphia Fed Manufacturing Index is due at 10:00 a.m.

Earnings

• Sears Holdings (NASDAQ: SHLD) Reports Q3 EPS $(2.57) vs $(2.29) Est; Revenues $9.57B vs $9.57B Est.
• JM Smucker (NYSE: SJM) Reports Q2 EPS $1.29 vs $1.40 Est; Revenues $1.51B vs $1.49B Est.
• Dollar Tree (NASDAQ: DLTR) Reports Q3 EPS $0.87 vs $0.83 Est; Revenues $1.60B vs $1.58B Est.
• Williams-Sonoma (NYSE: WSM) Reports Q3 EPS $0.41 vs $0.38 Est; Revenues $867.2M vs $856.16M Est.
• Helmerich Payne (NYSE: HP) Reports Q4 EPS $1.11 vs $1.04 Est; Revenues $700.8M vs $674.06M Est.

Corporate News

• Walmart (NYSE: WMT) announces free shipping on all electronics this holiday season.
• Dunkin' Brands Group, Inc. (Nasdaq: DNKN) announced the offering of 22 million shares of its common stock at a price of $25.62 per share.
• Pfizer (NYSE: PFE) announced that the European Commission has approved Vyndaqel for the treatment of Transthyretin Familial Amyloid Polyneuropathy in adult patients with stage 1 symptomatic polyneuropathy.
• Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ: AMZN) and Warner Bros. has signed a major film distribution agreement with LOVEFiLM in the UK, Ireland & Spain.

Commodities

• Precious metals are trading lower, with gold posting losses of about 1.7%
• Energy futures are trading lower, with crude oil posting losses of about 2.3%
• Natural Gas futures are higher by about 0.9% and copper is trading lower by about 2.6%

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