Financial Breakfast: Morning News Summary for September 22, 2011

This is your Benzinga news summary and traders' outlook for Thursday, September 22, 2011, covering headlines from overnight and Thursday's pre-market session. Today in domestic pre-market trading, U.S equity futures are trading lower. At last check, Dow futures are trading down over 225 points and the U.S. dollar trades higher near the $79.15 level. Earlier this morning, Citigroup upgraded Lennar

to Buy and JP Morgan upgraded Standard Pacific

to Neutral. View all of

. Goldman Sachs downgraded Johnson & Johnson

to Neutral and Jefferies downgraded Diamond Foods

to Hold. View all of

. Oppenheimer lowered Pacific Biosciences'

price target to $4 from $8 and Deutsche Bank lowered Walter Energy's

price target to $105 from $130. View all other

. Overseas, European markets are lower in afternoon trading. Britain's FTSE 100 lost 4.6%, Germany's DAX tumbled 4.4% and France's CAC 40 slid 5% on the session. Asian stocks ended the session lower as well. China's Shanghai Index fell 2.8%, Japan's Nikkei 225 slid 2.1%, and Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index tumbled 4.85%. On the economic calendar, Initial and Continuing Jobless Claims are set to be reported at 8:30 a.m. The Leading Indicators Index and House Price Index are due at 10:00 a.m. On the commodity front,

and

futures are lower in pre-market trading with gold trading down over 3%. Energy futures are also lower with

up down over $3.50 near the $82.10 level and

futures are trading lower by about 3.3%.

futures are down about 1% and

futures are trading about 5% lower this morning. On the earnings front, FedEx

reported Q1 EPS of $1.46 on revenues of $10.5 billion; The Street was looking for $1.47 per share on revenues of $10.34 billion. The company cut its FY EPS view to $6.25-$6.75, had seen $6.35-$6.85. Analysts are expecting FY EPS to be $6.40. Rite Aid

reported Q3 EPS of $(0.11) on revenues of $6.27 billion; The Street was looking for $(0.17) per share on revenues of $6.22 billion. CarMax

reported Q2 EPS of $0.49 on revenues of $2.59 billion; The Street was looking for $0.51 per share on revenues of $2.62 billion. In corporate news, Logitech

for fiscal year 2012. The company now expects sales to be $2.4 billion from its prior guidance of $2.5 billion. Analysts are expecting FY2012 sales to be $2.42 billion. Yesterday, Moody's downgraded the likes of Bank of America

, Wells Fargo

, and Citigroup

. The ratings agency cited that it expects the U.S. Government will likely continue to provide “some level” of support to significant financial institutions. Mastech Holdings

today announced that Thomas Moran

as President, and Chief Executive Officer and as a director to pursue other opportunities. This concludes your news summary for September 22, 2011. Want to receive the morning news summary to you inbox every morning? Click

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