Financial Breakfast: Morning News Summary for January 12, 2012

Thursday, January 12, 2012

This is your Benzinga news summary and trader's outlook covering headlines from overnight and today's pre-market session.


It took almost three years for the DOW to hit bottom after the stock market crash in 1929.

Benzinga's Top News

  • Williams-Sonoma WSM increases dividend 29% and new $225 million stock repurchase program; lowers Q4 EPS guidance to $1.10-1.15 from $1.15-1.20 prior.
  • Cache CACH updates Q4 guidance to $0.16-0.18 vs $0.24 est; expects comparable store sales to increase 12%

Domestic Pre-Market Trading

  • U.S. Equity Markets trade higher as Dow futures trade up about 55 points.
  • U.S. Dollar trades about 0.35% lower.
To see more pre-market news, click here.

Overseas Trading

  • European markets are higher in afternoon trading. Britain's FTSE 100 added 0.35%, Germany's DAX gained 1.47% and France's CAC 40 advanced 1.28% on the session.
  • Asian stocks ended the session lower. China's Shanghai lost 0.41%, Japan's Nikkei 225 slid 0.74%, and Hong Kong's Hang Seng fell 0.3%
To see more overseas news, click here.

Upgrades/Downgrades

  • Jefferies upgrades Qlik Technologies QLIK to Buy
  • JP Morgan upgrades Graphic Packaging GPK to Overweight
To see more of today's upgrades, click here.

  • Citigroup downgrades Stryker SYK to Neutral
  • Jefferies downgrades ConocoPhillips COP to Hold
To see more of today's downgrades, click here.

On the Economic Calendar

  • Advance Retail Sales, Initial and Continuing Jobless Claims are due at 8:30 a.m. ET
  • Business Inventories are set to report at 10:00 a.m.
  • Monthly Budget Statement is due at 2:00 p.m.
To see more economic news, click here

Earnings

    No Major Earnings this Morning
To see more earnings announcements, click here.

Corporate News

  • Williams-Sonoma WSM increases dividend 29% and new $225 million stock repurchase program; lowers Q4 EPS guidance to $1.10-1.15 from $1.15-1.20 prior.
  • Cache CACH updates Q4 guidance to $0.16-0.18 vs $0.24 est; expects comparable store sales to increase 12%
To see more corporate news, click here.

Commodities

  • Precious metals are trading higher, with gold posting gains of about 1.16%
  • Energy futures are trading higher, with crude oil posting gains of about 1.43%
  • Natural Gas futures are lower by about 1.9% and copper is trading higher by about 2.2%
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 12445 12418 12378 12347 12307
E-Mini S&P 500 1296 1291 1285 1281 1275
Gold 1655 1649 1642 1636 1628
Crude 103.24 102.10 101.33 100.19 99.42
Natural Gas 2.95 2.86 2.80 2.70 2.64
EUR/USD 1.2846 1.2780 1.2718 1.2648 1.2590
US Dollar Index 82.16 81.86 81.48 81.17 80.79


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Posted In: EarningsNewsGuidanceUpgradesDowngradesFuturesTechnicalsCommoditiesForexManagementEventsGlobalEcon #sEconomicsPre-Market OutlookMarketsAnalyst RatingsTrading Ideas
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