End-of-Day Market Summary for January 6, 2012

This is your Benzinga news summary for Friday, January 6, 2012, covering headlines from Thursday's daytime trading session. Today at market close, the Dow Jones Index traded down about 55.78 points or 0.45%, the S&P 500 traded 0.25% lower, the Nasdaq Composite Index traded up 0.16%, and the U.S. dollar trades slightly higher near the $80.60 level. Earlier today, Jefferies upgraded Regeneron Pharmaceuticals REGN to Buy and Macquarie upgraded SunTrust Banks STI to Outperform. View all of today's upgrades here. Jefferies downgraded Invesco Mortgage Capital IVR to Buy and JP Morgan downgraded Boyd Gaming Group BYD to Underweight. View all of today's downgrades here. Overseas, European markets ended their trading session mixed. Britain's FTSE 100 gained 0.45%, Germany's DAX decreased by 0.62% and France's CAC 40 tumbled by 0.24% on the session. Asian stocks ended their session mixed. China's Shanghai Index rallied by 0.7%, Japan's Nikkei 225 decreased by 1.16%, and the Hang Seng index lost 1.17%. On the economic calendar, Change in Nonfarm Payrolls came in at 200K versus an estimate of 155K and the Unemployment Rate came in at 8.5% versus an estimate of 8.7%. On the commodity front, gold and silver futures traded higher today, with gold trading about 0.1% higher today. Energy futures are mixed, with crude oil up over 0.1% near the $101.75 level and gasoline futures are trading lower by about 0.9%. Natural Gas futures are higher by about 3% and copper futures are trading over 0.1% lower. Today's afternoon earnings announcements included nothing major. In corporate news, Icahn Enterprises Holdings IEP announced that it has sent a letter maintaining that it will continue the proxy fight for Commercial Metals Company CMC. Lululemon LULU announced that its chief innovation and branding officer will step down and maintain his position as the Chairman. Integrated Electrical Services IESC announced that Robert Lewey will take over as CFO. This concludes your news summary for January 6, 2012.