Financial Breakfast: Morning News Summary for December 22, 2011

• • After the Great Depression it took 25 years for the stock market to recover fully, to the point it'd been at before the crash.

Benzinga's Top News

• Yahoo YHOO is Discussing a Plan to Cut Alibaba Stake to 15%; Deal Would be Structured as a Cash-Rich Split-Off
• AECOM (NYSE ACM), Shaw SHAW joint venture awarded Global Contingency Services Contract worth up to $900 million.
• Brazil's Unemployment Rate Drops to 5.2% In November; Lowers 2011 Economic Growth Forecast

Domestic Pre-Market Trading

• U.S. Equity Markets trade higher as Dow futures trade up about 50 points.
• U.S. Dollar trades about 0.09% lower.

Overseas Trading

• European markets are higher in afternoon trading. Britain's FTSE 100 gained 1.15%, Germany's DAX added 1.04% and France's CAC 40 gained 1.29% on the session.
• Asian stocks ended the session lower. China's Shanghai lost 0.21%, Japan's Nikkei 225 slid 0.77% and Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index fell 0.21%.
• Brazil's Unemployment Rate Drops to 5.2% In November; Lowers 2011 Economic Growth Forecast

Upgrades/Downgrades

• Wunderlich Securities upgrades VMware VMW to Buy, Maintains PT at $95
• JP Morgan upgrades WABCO WBC to Overweight

• Benchmark Downgrades Manhattan Associates MANH to Hold

On the Economic Calendar

• Chicago Fed National Activity Index, GDP (QoQ), Initial & Continuing Jobless Claims are due at 8:30 a.m. ET
• U of M Confidence Index is set to report at 9:55 a.m.
• Leading Indicators and House Price Index is due at 10:00 a.m.

Earnings

No Major Earnings this Morning

Corporate News

• AECOM (NYSE ACM), Shaw SHAW joint venture awarded Global Contingency Services Contract worth up to $900 million.
• Akamai AKAM to Acquire Cotendo for $268M
• Yahoo YHOO is Discussing a Plan to Cut Alibaba Stake to 15%; Deal Would be Structured as a Cash-Rich Split-Off

Commodities

• Precious metals are trading lower, with gold posting losses of about 0.07%
• Energy futures are trading higher, with crude oil posting gains of about 0.37%
• Natural Gas futures are higher by about 1.16% and copper is trading higher by about 0.41%

Benzinga's Morning Radar

Technical Levels for Futures and Forex

Name	Resistance-2	Resistance-1	Mid Pivot	Support-1	Support-2
E-Mini Dow	12266	12144	12036	11914	11806
E-Mini S&P 500	1262	1249	1236	1223	1210
Gold	1658	1637	1622	1601	1586
Crude	100.81	99.91	99.04	97.46	95.91
Natural Gas	3.24	3.20	3.15	3.11	3.05
EUR/USD	1.3260	1.3153	1.3088	1.2981	1.2916
USD/JPY	78.36	78.20	77.94	77.78	77.52
US Dollar Index	80.99	80.65	80.10	79.76	79.20

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