Financial Breakfast: Morning News Summary for December 9, 2011

• Brokers joined the New York Stock Exchange by purchasing seats up until December 31, 2005, when the system switched to annual trading licenses. Before the switch, the highest amount paid for a seat was $4 million on December 1, 2005.

Benzinga's Top News

• Blue Coat Systems BCSI announced that it has entered into a definitive agreement to be acquired by a private equity investment firm Thoma Bravo, in a transaction valued at approximately $1.3 billion or $25.81/share.
• Chinese industrial production for November surged 12.4% y/y, below economists' estimates and versus October's 13.2% rise.
• Toyota Motor Corp TM lowered its net profit forecast by 54% for this fiscal year.

Domestic Pre-Market Trading

• U.S. Equity Markets trade higher as Dow futures trade about 100 points higher.
• U.S. Dollar trades about 0.43% lower.

Overseas Trading

• European markets are higher in afternoon trading. Britain's FTSE 100 added 0.8%, Germany's DAX gained 1.6% and France's CAC 40 added 1.8% on the session.
• Asian stocks ended the session lower. China's Shanghai lost 0.62%, Japan's Nikkei 225 slid 1.5% and Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index lost 2.7%.

Upgrades/Downgrades

• Credit Suisse upgrades Pepco Holdings POM to Outperform

• Piper Jaffray downgrades Exact Sciences EXAS to Neutral, Lowers PT to $8
• Susquehanna downgrades Costco COST to Negative from Neutral

On the Economic Calendar

• Chinese industrial production for November surged 12.4% y/y, below economists' estimates and versus October's 13.2% rise.
• U.S. Trade Balance is due at 8:30 a.m. ET
• University of Michigan Confidence Index is set to report at 9:55 a.m.

Earnings

• Titan Machinery Reports Q3 EPS $0.61 vs $0.50 Est; Revenues $423M vs $383.90M Est

Corporate News

• Panasonic PC announced that it will expand its smartphone business to the European market in March 2012.
• Blue Coat Systems BCSI announced that it has entered into a definitive agreement to be acquired by a private equity investment firm Thoma Bravo, in a transaction valued at approximately $1.3 billion or $25.81/share.
• Toyota Motor Corp TM lowered its net profit forecast by 54% for this fiscal year.

Commodities

• Precious metals are trading higher, with gold posting gains of about 0.62%
• Energy futures are trading higher, with crude oil posting gains of about 0.52%
• Natural Gas futures are lower by about 1% and copper is trading higher by about 1.4%

Benzinga's Morning Radar

Technical Levels for Futures and Forex

Name	Resistance-2	Resistance-1	Mid Pivot	Support-1	Support-2
E-Mini Dow	12355	12149	12019	11813	11683
E-Mini S&P 500	1281	1255	1240	1214	1198
Gold	1778	1744	1725	1691	1673
Crude	103.16	100.58	99.14	96.56	95.12
Natural Gas	3.60	3.52	3.46	3.38	3.32
EUR/USD	1.3532	1.3436	1.3362	1.3265	1.3191
USD/JPY	78.17	77.90	77.51	77.23	76.84
US Dollar Index	79.66	79.29	78.72	78.35	77.78

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