Financial Breakfast: Morning News Summary for February 2, 2012

In Massachusetts in 1690, the first paper money of the colonies was issued.

Benzinga's Top News

• Merck MRK Reports Q4 EPS $0.97 vs $0.95 Est; Revenues $12.30B vs $12.53B Est
• Dow Chemical DOW Reports Q4 EPS $0.25 vs $0.30 Est; Revenues $14.1B vs $14.19B Est
• Yesterday, Facebook (NYSE/NASDAQ: FB) has Filed a $5 Billion IPO

Domestic Pre-Market Trading

• U.S. Equity Markets trade lower as Dow futures trade down about 13 points.
• U.S. Dollar trades about 0.26% higher.

Overseas Trading

• European markets are mixed in afternoon trading. Britain's FTSE 100 lost 0.05%, Germany's DAX gained 0.09% and France's CAC 40 slid 0.09% on the session.
• Asian stocks ended the session higher. China's Shanghai added 1.92%, Japan's Nikkei 225 gained 0.76%, and Hong Kong's Hang Seng advanced 2.00%.

Upgrades/Downgrades

• JP Morgan Upgrades Dell DELL to Overweight
• Stifel Nicolaus Upgrades Seagate Technology STX to Buy

• Global Equities Research Downgrades Salesforce.com CRM to Underweight
• Bank of America Downgrades Steel Dynamics STLD to Neutral

On the Economic Calendar

• Nonfarm Productivity, Initial and Continuing Jobless Claims are set to report at 8:30 a.m. ET

Earnings

• Merck MRK Reports Q4 EPS $0.97 vs $0.95 Est; Revenues $12.30B vs $12.53B Est
• Dow Chemical DOW Reports Q4 EPS $0.25 vs $0.30 Est; Revenues $14.1B vs $14.19B Est
• Viacom VIA Reports Q1 EPS $1.06 vs $1.06 Est; Revenues $3.95B vs $3.99B Est
• Boston Scientific BSX Reports Q4EPS $0.13 vs $0.08 Est; Revenues $1.85B vs $1.91B Est

Corporate News

• SAP SAP Extends Offer to Acquire SuccessFactors SFSF
• Yesterday, Facebook (NYSE/NASDAQ: FB) has Filed a $5 Billion IPO
• Casual Male Retail NASDAQ: CMRG) Lowers 2011 EPS Guidance

Commodities

• Precious metals are trading lower, with gold posting losses of about 0.13%
• Energy futures are trading lower, with crude oil posting losses of about 1.07%
• Natural Gas futures are higher by about 0.13% and copper is trading lower by about 1.33%

Benzinga's Morning Radar

Technical Levels for Futures and Forex

Name	Resistance-2	Resistance-1	Mid Pivot	Support-1	Support-2
E-Mini S&P 500	1340	1330	1317	1307	1294
Gold	1763	1754	1745	1736	1726
Crude	100.30	98.74	97.92	96.36	95.54
Natural Gas	2.51	2.44	2.39	2.33	2.28
EUR/USD	1.3326	1.3242	1.3134	1.3050	1.2941
US Dollar Index	80.06	79.55	79.14	78.63	78.22

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