This is your Benzinga news summary and traders' summary for Monday, October 3, 2011, covering headlines from the day and Monday's after-hours session.
Today in the domestic after-hours session, U.S equity indices trended lower. At last check, the Dow Jones Industrial Average is down by about 258 points or 2.36% and the U.S. dollar trades higher near the $80.20 level.
Earlier this morning, JP Morgan upgraded TCF Financial TCB to Overweight and Stifel Nicolaus upgraded Amazon AMZN to Buy. View all of today's upgrades here.
Citigroup downgraded United Continental Holdings UAL to Hold and JP Morgan downgraded Franklin Resources BEN to Underweight. View all of today's downgrades here.
Piper Jaffray raised Costco Wholesale's COST price target to $91 from $83 and Credit Suisse lowered First Solar's FSLR price target to $80 from $135. View all other of today's analyst ratings here.
Overseas, European markets ended lower in their trading sessions. Britain's FTSE 100 lost 1.03%, Germany's DAX tumbled 2.28% and France's CAC 40 slid 1.85% on the session. Asian stocks ended the session lower as well. China's Shanghai Index lost 0.25%, Japan's Nikkei 225 slid 1.8%, and Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index tumbled 4.4%.
On the economic calendar, the Department of Commerce's Factory Orders number is set to come out at 10:00 a.m.
On the commodity front, gold and silver futures are mixed in after-hours trading, with gold trading higher at about $1668 per ounce and silver trading lower at about $30.75 per ounce. Energy futures are lower with crude oil down over 1% near the $76.31 level and gasoline trading lower by about 0.4%. Natural Gas futures are lower by about 0.25% and copper futures are trading over 2.5% lower this evening.
In corporate news, Boeing BA announced that it was awarded an $11.75 billion contract by the Air Force. Boeing will be working with systems for various aircraft, and approximately 10% of the total work will assist foreign forces.
Laboratory Corporation of America LH today announced the nationwide availability of a new FDA-approved companion diagnostic for lung cancer patients. “The recent approval of XALKORI for NSCLC and its companion test demonstrates how laboratory diagnostics will play an even larger role in cancer care, assisting physicians in administering the treatments best suited to the disease.”
The McGraw-Hill Companies MHP today announced that it has agreed to sell its nine-station broadcasting group to E.W. Scripps for $212 million in cash.
This concludes your news summary for October 3, 2011.
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