News Summary for July 22, 2011

This is your Benzinga news summary and traders' outlook for Friday, July 22, 2011, covering headlines from overnight and Friday's pre-market session.

Today in domestic pre-market trading, U.S. equity futures are trading higher following the approval of a deeper Greek rescue plan. The U.S. dollar and the Euro are both flat this morning.

Earlier this morning, Benchmark upgraded DigitalGlobe (NYSE: DGI) to Buy and Wunderlich Securities upgraded EV Energy Partners (NASDAQ: EVEP) to Buy. View all of today's upgrades here.

Deutsche Bank downgraded SFN Group (NYSE: SFN) to Hold and William Blair downgraded Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT) to Market Perform. View all of today's downgrades here. JP Morgan lowered Whirlpool's (NYSE: WHR) price target to $82 from $90, and Wedbush raised Goodrich's (NYSE: GR) price target to $119 from $102. View all other analyst ratings here.

Overseas, European markets were higher this morning. Britain's FTSE 100 added about 0.9% and France's CAC 40 gained 1% on the session. Asian stocks were higher on the session as well. China's Shanghai Index gained 0.2%, Japan's Nikkei 225 jumped 1.2%, and Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index spiked 2.1%.

There are no economic releases today.

On the commodity front, gold and silver futures are positive in pre-market trading, with gold nearing the $1600 per ounce level. Energy futures are flat with crude oil near the $99.50 per barrel level, and gasoline futures are trading near the 3.077 level; however, natural gas futures are up over 0.5%. Finally, copper futures are up about 0.5% as well. On the earnings front, Verizon Wireless (NYSE: VZ) reported Q2 EPS of $0.57 on revenues of $27.54 billion; The Street was looking for $0.55 per share on revenues of $27.43 billion.

Caterpillar (NYSE: CAT) reported Q2 EPS of $1.72 on revenues of $14.2 billion; The Street was looking for $1.79 per share on revenues of $13.52 billion.

Xerox (NYSE: XRX) reported Q2 EPS of $0.27 on revenues of $5.6 billion; The Street was looking for $0.24 per share on revenues of $5.6 billion.

Also, General Electric (NYSE: GE) reported Q2 EPS of $0.34 on revenues of $35.63 billion; The Street was looking for $0.32 per share on revenues of $34.72 billion. Read more here.

Yesterday, Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT) reported Q2 EPS of $0.69 on revenues of $17.37 billion; The Street was looking for $0.58 per share on revenues of $17.25 billion. Read more here.

In corporate news, The Verizon Board of Directors has named Verizon COO Lowell C. McAdam as president and CEO of Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE: VZ), effective Aug. 1. Ivan G. Seidenberg will step down from the CEO role but remain chairman.

This concludes your news summary for July 22, 2011.