News Summary for July 20, 2011
This is your Benzinga news summary and traders' outlook for Thursday, July 21, 2011, covering headlines from overnight and Thursday's pre-market session.
Today in domestic pre-market trading, U.S. equity futures are trading slightly lower as traders wait for several blue-chip companies to report quarterly earnings. The U.S. dollar is trading higher this morning as the Euro falls over 0.25%.
Earlier this morning, Deutsche Bank upgraded PetSmart (NASDAQ: PETM) to Hold and upgraded FirstEnergy (NYSE: FE) to Buy. View all of today's upgrades here.
RBC downgraded Clorox (NYSE: CLX) to Sector Perform and Citi downgraded Toll Brothers (NYSE: TOL) to Hold. View all of today's downgrades here.
Credit Suisse removed Bank of America (NYSE: BAC) from its Focus List, Deutsche Bank raised Tractor Supply Co's (NASDAQ: TSCO) price target to $80 from $70, and Goldman Sachs raised F5 Networks' (NASDAQ: FFIV) price target to $98 from $94. View all other analyst ratings here.
Overseas, European markets were lower this morning. Britain's FTSE 100 fell about 0.25% and France's CAC 40 shed 0.1% on the session. Asian stocks were lower on the session as well. China's Shanghai Index shed 1%, Japan's Nikkei 225 was flat, and Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index fell 0.1%.
On the economic calendar today, initial and continuing claims are set to be reported at 8:30 a.m. Phili Fed Manufacturing Index, Leading Economic Indicators, and FHFA Housing Price Index is due at 10:00 a.m.
On the commodity front, gold and silver futures are slightly positive in pre-market trading, with gold at the $1600 per ounce level. Energy futures are slightly lower with crude oil down about 0.25% on the session, around the $98 per barrel level, and gasoline futures are trading about 0.5% lower on the session; however, natural gas futures are up over 0.5%. Finally, copper futures are taking the biggest hit this mornings, down about 1%.
On the earnings front, investment bank Morgan Stanley (NYSE: MS) reported Q2 EPS of $(0.38) on revenues of $9.28 billion; The Street was looking for $(0.62) per share on revenues of $8.04 billion.
Healthcare company Baxter International (NYSE: BAX) reported Q2 EPS of $1.07 on revenues of $3.54 billion; The Street was looking for $1.02 per share on revenues of $3.38 billion.
Also, Eli Lilly (NYSE: LLY) reported Q2 EPS of $1.18 on revenues of $6.25 billion; The Street was looking for $1.17 per share on revenues of $5.99 billion. Read more here.
Yesterday, Intel (NASDAQ: INTC) reported Q2 EPS of $0.59 on revenues of $13.1 billion; The Street was looking for $0.51 per share on revenues of $12.82 billion. Read more here.
Also yesterday, Qualcomm (NASDAQ: QCOM) reported Q3 EPS of $0.73 on revenues of $3.62 billion; The Street was looking for $0.71 per share on revenues of $3.59 billion. Read more here.
In corporate news, Express Scripts (NASDAQ: ESRX) has agreed to buy competitor Medco Health Solutions (NYSE: MHS) for $29.1 billion, making it one of the largest M&A deals of the year. here.
This concludes your news summary for July 21, 2011.
