Financial Breakfast: Morning News Summary for December 15, 2011

• 1993 - The year the first ETF was introduced tracking the S&P 500

Benzinga's Top News

• FedEx Reports Q2 EPS $1.57 vs $1.52 Est; Revenues $10.59B vs $10.58B Est
• Diamond Foods DMND receives formal investigation from the SEC
• Fujifilm Holdings Corp FUJIY announced its plans to buy SonoSite SONO for around $995 million.

Domestic Pre-Market Trading

• U.S. Equity Markets trade higher as Dow futures trade up about 70 points.
• U.S. Dollar trades about 0.28% lower.

Overseas Trading

• European markets are higher in afternoon trading. Britain's FTSE 100 added 0.55%, Germany's DAX gained 0.8% and France's CAC 40 added 0.52% on the session.
• Asian stocks ended the session lower. China's Shanghai lost 2.1%, Japan's Nikkei 225 slid 1.66% and Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index fell 1.8%.
• Venezuela says OPEC has agreed on 30 million barrels per day ceiling

Upgrades/Downgrades

• Deutsche Bank upgrades Skyworks SWKS to Buy
• BMO Capital Markets upgrades MeadWestvaco MWV to Outperform

• Morgan Stanley downgrades Sociedad Quimica SQM to Underweight
• Roth Capital downgrades BioSante Pharmaceuticals BPAX to Neutral

On the Economic Calendar

• The Producer Price Index, Current Account Balance, Empire Manufacturing, Initial and Continuing Jobless Claims are all set to report at 8:30 a.m. ET
• TIC Flows are due at 9:00 a.m.
• Industrial Production and Capacity Utilization is to report at 9:15 a.m.
• Philadelphia Fed Index is due at 10:00 a.m.

Earnings

• FedEx Reports Q2 EPS $1.57 vs $1.52 Est; Revenues $10.59B vs $10.58B Est
• Schiff Nutrition International WNI reports Q2 EPS $0.08 vs $0.12 Est; Revenues $61M vs $57.90M Est
• Winnebago Industries WGO eports Q1 EPS $0.04 vs $0.06 Est; Revenues $131.8M vs $133.35M Est
• Rite Aid RAD reports Q3 EPS $(0.06) vs $(0.11) Est; Revenues $6.31B vs $6.29B Est
• Pier 1 Imports (NYSE PIR) reports Q3 EPS $0.21 vs $0.21 Est; Revenues $382.7M vs $379.07M Est

Corporate News

• DuPont (NYSE DD) prevails in PROaccess arbitration with Monsanto MON
• Covidien COV plans spin-off of Pharmaceuticals Business
• Waddell & Reed WDR increases dividend by 25% to $0.25 per share
• Diamond Foods DMND receives formal investigation from the SEC
• BioSante's BPAX menopause treatment fails to meet primary objectives
• Fujifilm Holdings Corp FUJIY announced its plans to buy SonoSite SONO for around $995 million.

Commodities

• Precious metals are trading higher, with gold posting gains of about 0.4%
• Energy futures are trading higher, with crude oil posting gains of about 0.6%
• Natural Gas futures are lower by about 0.7% and copper is trading higher by about 0.21%

Benzinga's Morning Radar

Technical Levels for Futures and Forex

Name	Resistance-2	Resistance-1	Mid Pivot	Support-1	Support-2
E-Mini Dow	12036	11898	11807	11669	11578
E-Mini S&P 500	1235	1221	1211	1197	1187
Gold	1676	1627	1597	1548	1517
Crude	102.24	98.53	96.37	92.66	90.50
Natural Gas	3.31	3.22	3.17	3.08	3.03
EUR/USD	1.3115	1.3048	1.3000	1.2930	1.2878
USD/JPY	78.27	78.17	78.04	77.93	77.81
US Dollar Index	81.77	81.50	81.14	80.86	80.50

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