News Summary for July 14, 2011

This is your Benzinga news summary and traders' outlook for Thursday, July 14, 2011, covering headlines from overnight and Thursday's pre-market session.

Today in domestic pre-market trading, U.S. equity futures are trading flat as investors await key economic data at 8:30 this morning. The U.S. dollar is trading slightly lower this morning as markets overseas traded higher.

Earlier this morning, Goldman Sachs upgraded Toll Brothers (NYSE: TOL) to "buy". Other upgrades can be found here. Meritage Homes (NYSE: MTH) was downgraded to "neutral" by Goldman Sachs, and JP Morgan downgraded Stillwater Mining (NYSE: SWC) to "sector perform". Other downgrades can be found here and other analyst ratings can be found here.

Overseas, European markets were lower this morning. Britain's FTSE 100 dropped over 0.5% and France's CAC 40 fell over 0.4% on the session. Asian stocks were mixed on the session. China's Shanghai Index jumped over 0.5%, Japan's Nikkei 225 fell 0.3% and Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index added 0.1%.

On the economic calendar today, the Producer Price Index, Advance Retail Sales, and jobless data for the period of June is set to be reported at 8:30 a.m. Business Inventories for the period of May is due at 10:00 a.m.

On the commodity front, gold and silver futures are higher in pre-market trading, with silver trading about 2% higher. However, energy futures are mixed with crude oil slightly higher, near the $98 per barrel level, and gasoline futures near the $3.13 level, or down about 0.4%; however, natural gas futures are flat on the session. Likewise, copper futures are trading flat on today's pre-market session.

On the earnings front, Yum! Brands (NYSE: YUM) reported EPS of 65 cents per share versus the 64 cents per share estimate and revenues of $2.82 billion versus the $2.7 billion estimate. Shares traded higher after-hours. Read more here.

Also, Marriott (NYSE: MAR) reported EPS of 37 cents per share versus the 27 cents per share estimate and revenues of $2.68 billion versus the $3.02 billion estimate. Read more here.

Finally, JPMorgan (NYSE: JPM) reported its quarterly profit at $1.27 per share, up from $1.09 per share last year. Its revenue surged to $27.41 billion from $25.1 billion. The Street was expecting a profit of $1.22 per share on revenue of $25.02 billion.

In corporate news, ConocoPhilips (NYSE: COP) board of directors has approved the separation of the company's Refining & Marketing and Exploration & Production businesses into two stand-alone, publicly traded corporations. Read more about this here.

Also, Moody's put the U.S. debt rating on review for a possible downgrade. Finally, notable players reporting after the close today include Google (NASDAQ: GOOG) and JB Hunt (NASDAQ: JBHT).

This concludes your news summary for July 14, 2011.

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