Financial Breakfast: Morning News Summary for October 18, 2011

This is your Benzinga news summary and traders' outlook for Tuesday, October 18, 2011, covering headlines from overnight and Tuesday 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 60 points or 0.53% and the U.S. dollar trades higher near the $77.65 level. Earlier this morning, JP Morgan upgraded TE Connectivity TEL to Overweight and Piper Jaffray upgraded Cheesecake Factory CAKE to Overweight as well. View all of today's upgrades here. JP Morgan downgraded Chesapeake Energy CHK to Neutral and Jefferies downgraded Walgreens WAG to Hold. View all of today's downgrades here. Overseas, European markets are lower in afternoon trading. Britain's FTSE 100 lost 1.3%, Germany's DAX slid 0.6% and France's CAC 40 tumbled 1.8% on the session. Asian stocks ended the session lower as well. China's Shanghai lost 2.35%, Japan's Nikkei 225 slid 1.55% and Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index tumbled 4.23%. On the economic calendar, Initial and Continuing Jobless Claims are set to be reported at 8:30 a.m. Bank of England left interest rates unchanged at 0.50% and the European Central Bank left interest rates unchanged at 1.5%. On the commodity front, gold and silver futures are lower in pre-market trading, with gold trading down by about 0.85%. Energy futures are mixed with crude oil unchanged near the $86.43 level and gasoline futures are trading lower by about 0.3%. Natural Gas futures are down by about 1% and copper futures are trading over 2% lower this morning. On the earnings front, Bank of America BAC reported Q3 EPS of $0.56, which may not compare to estimate, on revenues of $28.45 billion; The Street was looking for $0.20 per share on revenues of $25.95 billion. Coca-Cola KO reported Q3 EPS of $1.03 on revenues of $12.25 billion; The Street was looking for $1.02 per share on revenues of $12 billion. Goldman Sachs GS reported Q3 EPS of $(0.84), which may not compare to estimate, on revenues of $3.59 billion; The Street was looking for $(0.15) per share on revenues of $4.59 billion. Unitedhealth Group UNH reported Q3 EPS of $1.17 on revenues of $25.28 billion; The Street was looking for $1.11 per share on revenues of $25.45 billion. In corporate news, Dollar Thrifty Automotive Group DTG announced it has extended its agreement with Orbitz Worldwide OWW to distribute its Dollar Rent A Car and Thrifty Car Rental brands through the Orbitz family of sites until the end of 2014. The U.S. Army awarded Lockheed Martin LMT a $383 million contract to maintain, operate and sustain the Persistent Threat Detection Systems. Yesterday, Crocs CROX lowered its revenue and EPS guidance. The company now sees revenue in a range of $273 to $275 million versus previous guidance of $280 million. Crocs now expects Q3 EPS to be between $0.31 and $0.33 versus previous guidance of $0.40. Benzinga's Morning Radar: Technical Levels for Futures and Forex

Name	Resistance-2	Resistance-1	Mid Pivot	Support-1	Support-2
E-Mini Dow	11781	11541	11418	11178	11055
E-Mini S&P500	1243	1219	1206	1181	1169
E-Mini Nasdaq100	2414	2368	2342	2297	2271
Gold	1709	1690	1678	1659	1646
Silver	33.19	32.51	31.99	31.31	30.79
Crude	89.08	87.69	86.78	85.39	84.48
Natural Gas	3.83	3.75	3.70	3.62	3.56
EUR/USD	1.3980	1.3858	1.3791	1.3653	1.3602
USD/JPY	77.80	77.31	76.95	76.46	76.10
USD/CHF	0.9070	0.9020	0.8955	0.8915	0.8841

This concludes your news summary for October 18, 2011. Want to receive the morning news summary to you inbox every morning? Click here to subscribe now.