Financial Breakfast: Morning News Summary for September 12, 2011

This is your Benzinga news summary and traders' outlook for Monday, September 12, 2011, covering headlines from overnight and Monday's pre-market session. Today in domestic pre-market trading, U.S equity futures are trading lower. At last check, Dow futures are down by about 180 points or 1.6% and the U.S. dollar trades slightly higher near the $77.80 level. Earlier this morning, JP Morgan upgraded Clean Harbors CLH to Overweight and Goldman Sachs upgraded Agrium AGU to Neutral. View all of today's upgrades here. Jefferies downgraded Caliper Life Sciences CALP to Hold and Goldman Sachs downgraded Intrepid Potash IPI to Sell. View all of today's downgrades here. JP Morgan lowered Cummin's CMI price target to $113 from $132 and Piper Jaffray initiated Inphi Corp IPHI at Overweight with a $13 price target. View all other of today's analyst ratings here. Overseas, European markets are lower in afternoon trading. Britain's FTSE 100 lost 2.3%, Germany's DAX slid 3.1% and France's CAC 40 declined 4.4% on the session. Asian stocks ended the session lower as well. China's Shanghai Index lost 0.03%, Japan's Nikkei 225 declined 2.3%, and Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index slid by 4.2%. On the economic calendar, Italy's Industrial Production Index for the July period came in at (0.7%) versus a 0.1% estimate. On the commodity front, gold and silver futures are lower in pre-market trading, with gold trading lower by about 0.6%. Energy futures are lower with crude oil up near the $88.05 level and gasoline futures are trading lower by about 1.1%. Natural Gas futures are trading down by about 0.6% and copper futures are trading about 2.3% lower this morning. In corporate news, Coca-Cola Enterprises CCE has approved a new share repurchase program to begin once the current $1 billion program is completed. This new program targets purchases of $1 billion, and the company intends to purchase no less than $500 million in 2012. McGraw-Hill Companies MHP announced its plans to separate into two public companies. McGraw-Hill will split into McGraw-Hill Markets and McGraw-Hill Education. IsoRay ISR announced today that the FDA has cleared its GliaSite radiation therapy system, a balloon catheter device used in the treatment of brain cancer. Colfax CFX announced that they have reached an agreement on the terms to acquire Charter International for $2.4 billion in cash and stock. This concludes your news summary for September 12, 2011. Want to receive the morning news summary to you inbox every morning? Click here to subscribe now.