Financial Breakfast: Morning News Summary for December 16, 2011

• 89% - The amount wiped off stocks between 1929-1932, during the great depression.

Benzinga's Top News

• United Rentals URI to acquire RSC Holdings RRR at $18/share or Total Enterprise Value of $4.2B
• Zynga ZNGA Prices 100M-share Initial Public Offering at $10/share
• Darden Restaurants DRI reports Q2 EPS $0.41 vs $0.48 Est; Revenues $1.83B vs $1.83B Est

Domestic Pre-Market Trading

• U.S. Equity Markets trade higher as Dow futures trade up about 55 points.
• U.S. Dollar trades about 0.25% lower.

Overseas Trading

• European markets are mixed in afternoon trading. Britain's FTSE 100 added 0.4%, Germany's DAX lost 0.28% and France's CAC 40 slid 0.19% on the session.
• Asian stocks ended the session higher. China's Shanghai added 2%, Japan's Nikkei 225 gained 0.3% and Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index added 1.4%.

Upgrades/Downgrades

• JP Morgan upgrades Thomson Creek Metals TC to Overweight
• Oppenheimer upgrades Athenahealth ATHN to Perform

• Bank of America downgrades SAP AG SAP to Neutral
• ISI Group downgrades Cablevision Systems CVC to Hold

On the Economic Calendar

• The Consumer Price Index is set to report at 8:30 a.m. ET

Earnings

• Darden Restaurants DRI reports Q2 EPS $0.41 vs $0.48 Est; Revenues $1.83B vs $1.83B Est

Corporate News

• United Rentals URI to acquire RSC Holdings RRR at $18/share or Total Enterprise Value of $4.2B
• Zynga ZNGA Prices 100M-share Initial Public Offering at $10/share
• Fertitta signs agreement to acquire Morton's Restaurant MRT for $6.90 per share

Commodities

• Precious metals are trading higher, with gold posting gains of about 1.2%
• Energy futures are trading higher, with crude oil posting gains of about 0.5%
• Natural Gas futures are higher by about 0.16% and copper is trading higher by about 1.8%

Benzinga's Morning Radar

Technical Levels for Futures and Forex

Name	Resistance-2	Resistance-1	Mid Pivot	Support-1	Support-2
E-Mini Dow	11993	11907	11812	11726	11631
E-Mini S&P 500	1231	1221	1210	1201	1190
Gold	1611	1592	1577	1558	1543
Crude	96.92	95.18	94.24	92.50	91.56
Natural Gas	3.24	3.19	3.14	3.08	3.04
EUR/USD	1.3099	1.3056	1.3007	1.2964	1.2915
USD/JPY	78.25	78.05	77.94	77.68	77.52
US Dollar Index	81.56	81.26	81.01	80.71	80.47

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