Financial Breakfast: Morning News Summary for January 12, 2012

• 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.

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%

Upgrades/Downgrades

• Jefferies upgrades Qlik Technologies QLIK to Buy
• JP Morgan upgrades Graphic Packaging GPK to Overweight

• Citigroup downgrades Stryker SYK to Neutral
• Jefferies downgrades ConocoPhillips COP to Hold

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.

Earnings

No Major Earnings this Morning

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%

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%

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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