Financial Breakfast: Morning News Summary for December 1, 2011

• The NYSE trading area is nearly 2/3 the size of a football field.

Benzinga's Top News

• Euro-zone manufacturing sector dropped in November. The index declined to 46.4 versus 47.1 in October and versus a 46.4 estimate.
• Talbots (NYSE: TLB) reports Q3 EPS $(0.22) vs $(0.16) Est; Revenues $279.50M vs $271.47M Est
• lululemon athletica (NASDAQ: LULU) reports Q3 EPS $0.27 vs $0.25 Est; Revenues $230.20M vs $235.94M Est

Domestic Pre-Market Trading

• U.S. Equity Markets trade higher with Dow Futures up about 2 points.
• U.S. Dollar trades about 0.25% lower.

Overseas Trading

• European markets are mixed in afternoon trading. Britain's FTSE 100 added 0.5%, Germany's DAX lost 0.4% and France's CAC 40 slid 0.37% on the session.
• Asian stocks ended the session higher. China's Shanghai added 2.28%, Japan's Nikkei 225 gained 1.9% and Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index jumped 5.6%.

Upgrades/Downgrades

• Pacific Crest upgrades HomeAway (NASDAQ: AWAY) to Outperform
• Barclays upgrades US Airways (NYSE: LCC) to Overweight

• Disclosure Insight downgrades Quicksilver Resources (NYSE: KWK) to High Risk
• Wunderlich downgrades Bank of the Ozarks (NASDAQ: OZRK) to Hold, Maintains $28 Target

On the Economic Calendar

• Initial and Continuing Jobless Claims is set to be reported at 8:30 a.m. ET
• ISM Manufacturing, Prices Paid and Construction Spending is due at 10:00 a.m.
• Vehicle and Retail sales will report throughout the day.
• Euro-zone manufacturing sector dropped in November. The index declined to 46.4 versus 47.1 in October and versus a 46.4 estimate.

Earnings

• Talbots (NYSE: TLB) reports Q3 EPS $(0.22) vs $(0.16) Est; Revenues $279.50M vs $271.47M Est
• lululemon athletica (NASDAQ: LULU) reports Q3 EPS $0.27 vs $0.25 Est; Revenues $230.20M vs $235.94M Est
• Movado Group (NYSE: MOV) reports Q3 EPS $0.52 vs $0.43 Est; Revenues $142.60M vs $133.40M Est
• Gildan Activewear (NYSE: GIL) reports Q4 EPS $0.42 vs $0.40 Est; Revenues $481.8M vs $497.83M Est
• Toronto-Dominion Bank (NYSE: TD) reports Q4 EPS $1.77 vs $1.55 Est; Revenues C$5.67B

Corporate News

• Western Refining (NYSE: WNR) announced that it has entered into agreements for the divestiture of its Yorktown, Virginia facilities and an underutilized segment of its crude oil pipeline in southeast New Mexico for $220 million.
• Costco Wholesale Corp (NASDAQ: COST) reported a 9% rise in its November same-store sales.

Commodities

• Precious metals are trading higher, with silver posting gains of about 1.2%
• Energy futures are trading flat, with crude oil posting losses of about 0.05%
• Natural Gas futures are higher by about 1% and copper is trading lower by about 0.5%

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