Financial Breakfast: Morning News Summary for December 15, 2011
Posted in: Earnings, News, Futures, Guidance, Upgrades, Commodities, Dividends, Downgrades, Forex, Technicals, Legal, M&A, Events, Global, Econ #s, Economics, Pre-Market Outlook, Markets, Analyst Ratings, Trading Ideas, General, Best of Benzinga
Thursday, December 15, 2011
This is your Benzinga news summary and trader's outlook covering headlines from overnight and today's pre-market session.
• 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 (NASDAQ: DMND) receives formal investigation from the SEC
- Fujifilm Holdings Corp (OTC: FUJIY) announced its plans to buy SonoSite (NASDAQ: 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.
To see more pre-market news, click here.
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
To see more overseas news, click here.
Upgrades/Downgrades
- Deutsche Bank upgrades Skyworks (NASDAQ: SWKS) to Buy
- BMO Capital Markets upgrades MeadWestvaco (NYSE: MWV) to Outperform
To see more of today's upgrades, click here.
- Morgan Stanley downgrades Sociedad Quimica (NYSE: SQM) to Underweight
- Roth Capital downgrades BioSante Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ: BPAX) to Neutral
To see more of today's downgrades, click here.
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.
To see more economic news, click here
Earnings
- FedEx Reports Q2 EPS $1.57 vs $1.52 Est; Revenues $10.59B vs $10.58B Est
- Schiff Nutrition International (NYSE: WNI) reports Q2 EPS $0.08 vs $0.12 Est; Revenues $61M vs $57.90M Est
- Winnebago Industries (NYSE: WGO) eports Q1 EPS $0.04 vs $0.06 Est; Revenues $131.8M vs $133.35M Est
- Rite Aid (NYSE: 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
To see more earnings announcements, click here.
Corporate News
- DuPont (NYSE DD) prevails in PROaccess arbitration with Monsanto (NYSE: MON)
- Covidien (NYSE: COV) plans spin-off of Pharmaceuticals Business
- Waddell & Reed (NYSE: WDR) increases dividend by 25% to $0.25 per share
- Diamond Foods (NASDAQ: DMND) receives formal investigation from the SEC
- BioSante's (NASDAQ: BPAX) menopause treatment fails to meet primary objectives
- Fujifilm Holdings Corp (OTC: FUJIY) announced its plans to buy SonoSite (NASDAQ: SONO) for around $995 million.
To see more corporate news, click here.
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%
To see more commodities news, click here.
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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