News Summary for July 18, 2011
This is your Benzinga news summary and traders' outlook for Monday, July 18, 2011, covering headlines from overnight and Monday's pre-market session.
Today in domestic pre-market trading, U.S. equity futures are trading lower following more concerns of more European debt problems. The U.S. dollar is trading higher this morning as the Euro falls over 0.75%. Earlier this morning, Citigroup upgraded Arch Coal (NYSE: ACI) to Buy and Morgan Stanley upgraded Clorox (NYSE: CLX) to Equal Weight. View all of today's upgrades here.
JP Morgan downgraded LinkedIn (NASDAQ: LNKD) to Neutral, Pacific Crest downgraded Netflix (NASDAQ:NFLX) to Sector Perform, and Morgan Stanley downgraded Scripps Networks (NYSE: SNI) to Equal-Weight. View all of today's downgrades here and view all other analyst ratings here.
Overseas, European markets dropped this morning. Britain's FTSE 100 fell about 0.8% and France's CAC 40 tumbled 1.1% on the session. Asian stocks were mixed on the session. China's Shanghai Index shed 0.1%, Japan's Nikkei 225 added 0.4%, and Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index fell 0.3%.
On the economic calendar today, net long-term TIC flows for the period of May are set to be reported at 9:00 a.m. and NAHB Housing Market Index is due at 10:00 a.m.
On the commodity front, gold and silver futures are higher in pre-market trading, with gold hitting new all-times highs of 1602.50, trading about 0.5% higher. Energy futures are lower with crude oil down near the $97 per barrel level, and gasoline futures near the $3.11 level, or down about 0.5%; however, natural gas and copper futures are trading flat on today's pre-market session.
On the earnings front, oil giant Halliburton (NYSE: HAL) reported Q2 EPS of $0.81 on revenues of $5.94 billion; The Street was looking for $0.72 per share on revenues of $5.66 billion. Read more here.
Also, toy company Hasbro (NYSE: HAS) reported Q2 EPS of $0.42 on revenues of $908.5 million; The Street was looking for $0.39 per share on revenues of $852.6 million. Read more here.
In corporate news, Entergy Corp (NYSE: ETR) reported preliminary guidance this morning. The company expects fiscal year EPS of $6.35 to $6.85; The Street is expecting $6.58. Read more here. Notable companies going ex-dividend include Caterpillar (NYSE: CAT), Lowes (NYSE LOW), WGL Holdings (NYSE: WGL), and West Pharmaceuticals (NYSE: WST).
Finally, notable companies to report earnings after the close include IBM (NYSE: IBM), Mosaic (NYSE: MOS), Stanley Black & Decker (NYSE SWK), and Steel Dynamics (NASDAQ: STLD).
This concludes your news summary for July 18, 2011.
