End-of-Day Market Summary for December 16, 2011

This is your Benzinga news summary for Friday, December 16, 2011, covering headlines from Friday's daytime trading session. Today at market close, the Dow Jones Index traded down about 2.57 points or 0.02%, the S&P 500 traded 0.32% higher, the Nasdaq Composite Index traded up 0.56%, and the U.S. dollar trades lower near the $80.75 level. Earlier today, Stifel Nicolaus upgraded Discover DFS to Buy and Citi upgraded Athenahealth ATHN to Neutral. View all of today's upgrades here. Wells Fargo downgraded Morton's Restaurant Group MRT to Market Perform and RW Baird downgraded Pharmasset VRUS to Neutral. View all of today's downgrades here. Overseas, European markets ended their trading session lower. Britain's FTSE 100 lost 0.25%, Germany's DAX decreased by 0.5% and France's CAC 40 slid by 0.88% on the session. Asian stocks ended their session higher. China's Shanghai Index rallied by 2.01%, Japan's Nikkei 225 increased by 0.29%, and the Hang Seng index gained 1.43%. On the economic calendar, the Core CPI came in at 0.2% versus an estimate of 0.1%; CPI came in at 3.4% versus an estimate of 3.5%. On the commodity front, gold and silver futures traded mixed today, with gold trading about 0.15% higher today. Energy futures are higher, however, with crude oil up over 0.16% near the $94 level and gasoline futures are trading higher by about 0.5%. Natural Gas futures are higher by about 0.2% and copper futures are trading over 0.9% higher. There were no significant earnings announcement today. In corporate news, Jones Soda JSDA announced that it will be delisting from the TSX Canadian stock exchange. Lender Processing Services LPS announced that it has cooperated fully with the Nevada Attorney General to no avail. Herbalife HLF announced that to had a maximum fine of $250k liable to the Belgian government. Today's Movers include:

RSC Holdings RRR +57.8% after acquisition announcement by United Rentals

Cobalt International Energy CIE +22% on heavy volume

Alexco Resource Corp AXU +16.3% on heavy volume

Nicor GAS -24.6% on weak volume

Inhibitex INHX -19.5% on poor analyst sentiment

Lender Processing Services LPS -17.5% on negative legal issues

This concludes your news summary for December 16, 2011.