This is your Benzinga news summary for Friday, December 30, 2011, covering headlines from Friday's daytime trading session.

Today at market close, the Dow Jones Index traded down about 69.63 points or 0.57%, the S&P 500 traded 0.43% lower, the Nasdaq Composite Index traded down 0.33%, and the U.S. dollar trades slightly higher near the $80.60 level.

Earlier today, DA Davidson upgraded Starbucks (NASDAQ: SBUX [6]) to Buy and CL King upgraded MWI Veterinary Supply (NASDAQ: MWIV [7]) to Strong Buy. View all of today's upgrades here [8].

Global Hunter downgraded Rowan Companies (NYSE: RDC [9]) to Accumulate and Stephens downgraded Bank of Ozarks (NASDAQ: OZRK [10]) to Equalweight. View all of today's downgrades here [11].

Overseas, European markets ended their trading session higher. Britain's FTSE 100 gained 0.1%, Germany's DAX increased by 0.85% and France's CAC 40 rallied by 1.03% on the session. Asian stocks ended their session higher. China's Shanghai Index gained by 1.22%, Japan's Nikkei 225 increased by 0.67%, and the Hang Seng index gained 0.2%.

On the economic calendar, nothing came out. On the commodity front, gold [12] and silver [13] futures traded lower today, with gold trading about 0.1% lower today. Energy futures are lower, with crude oil [14] down over 0.7% near the $98.95 level and gasoline [15] futures are trading lower by about 0.4%. Natural Gas [16] futures are lower by about 2% and copper [17] futures are trading over 0.2% lower.

There were no earnings announcements today.

In corporate news, American Capital (NASDAQ: ACAS [18]) announced that it has repurchased 8.4 million shares at $6.97 per share [19].

Pacific Gas and Electric (NYSE: PCG [20]) announced that it will slightly drop rates for some of its products to account for inflationary changes [21].

Comfort Systems USA (NYSE: FIX [22]) announced that Brian Lane will take over as CEO [23].

This concludes your news summary for December 30, 2011.

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