End-of-Day Market Summary for October 21, 2011

This is your Benzinga news summary and traders' summary for Friday, October 21, 2011, covering headlines from Friday's trading session. Today at market close, the Dow Jones Index traded up about points or 2.31%, the S&P 500 traded 1.88% higher, the Nasdaq Composite Index traded up 1.49%, and the U.S. dollar trades lower near the $76.50 level. Earlier today, Stifel Nicolaus upgraded DCT Industrial Trust DCT to Buy and Goldman Sachs upgraded Accretive Health AH to Buy. View all of today's upgrades here. Sterne Agee downgraded CYS Investments CYS to Underperform and Brean Murray downgraded Penn National Gaming PENN to Hold. View all of today's downgrades here. Overseas, European markets ended their trading session higher. Britain's FTSE 100 increased by 1.93%, Germany's DAX gained 3.55% and France's CAC 40 rallied by 2.83% on the session. Asian stocks ended their session mixed. China's Shanghai Index declined by 0.58%, Japan's Nikkei 225 slid by 0.04%, and the Hang Seng index increased by 0.24%. On the economic calendar, the Chicago Fed Activity Index is set to come in on Monday, October 24 at 8:30am. Estimates are 0.21 and the prior number was -0.43. On the commodity front, gold and silver futures traded higher today, with gold trading about 0.3% higher today. Energy futures are higher as well with crude oil up over .8% near the $87.61 level and gasoline futures are trading higher by about 0.4%. Natural Gas futures are higher by about 0.4% and copper futures are trading over 0.7% higher. On the earnings front this morning, General Electric GE Reported Q3 EPS $0.31 vs $0.31 Est; Revenues $35.4B vs $34.94B Est; Verizon Communications VZ Reported Q3 EPS $0.56 vs $0.56 Est; Revenues $27.91B vs $27.88B Est; McDonald's MCD Reported Q3 EPS $1.45 vs $1.43; Revenues $7.17B vs $7.01B Est. In corporate news, General Dynamics GD announced that it was awarded $1 billion to help develop and upgrade a fleet of Canadian combat vehicles. The contract was awarded by the Canadian government, and will extend the fleet's lifecycle to 2035. Entertainment Gaming Asia EGT announced that it entered an agreement to increase revenue sharing rights with in the San Pedro VIP Club. Terms were undisclosed, but the deal is said to improve growth in one of the company's best venues. AMAG Pharmaceuticals AMAG announced that it held a special shareholders meeting regarding a merger with Allos Therapeutics. The shareholders did not have enough votes to approve the deal, which would have been funded via issuance of common stock. Abbott Laboratories ABT announced that it has agreed to pay $1.3 billion to suitors. The prosecuting parties claimed that Abbott Labs illegally marketed one of its epilepsy drugs. Today's movers include:

Seagate Technology STX +24.88% after reporting upbeat earnings yesterday.

Synaptics SYNA +19.28% following multiple positive analyst comments.

Harman International HAR +19.96% on upbeat earnings.

Cytec Industries CYT +13.88% on upbeat earnings.

Acme Packet APKT -19.77% on downbeat Q3 earnings.

Pharmasset VRUS -10.23% after Abbott Labs releases hepatitis C treatment data.

Basic Energy Services BAS -8.14% after reporting lower than expected revenue.

RSC Holdings RRR -8.13% despite of reporting better than expected earnings yesterday.

This concludes your news summary for October 21, 2011.