Financial Breakfast for August 25, 2011

This is your Benzinga news summary and traders' outlook for Thursday, August 25, 2011, covering headlines from overnight and Thursday's pre-market session. Today in domestic pre-market trading, U.S equity futures are trading slightly higher. At last check, Dow futures are up about 25 points and the U.S. dollar trades flat near the $74 level. Earlier this morning, Bank of America upgraded Casey's General Stores

to Buy and KBW upgraded Pennsylvania REIT

to Outperform. View all of

. Collin Stewart downgraded China Sunergy

to Neutral. View all of

. Goldman Sachs lowered United Therapeutics'

price target to $52 from $82 and Citigroup lowered Avon Products'

price target to $30 from $35. View all other

. Overseas, European markets are higher in afternoon trading. Britain's FTSE 100 rose 0.1%, Germany's DAX gained 0.75% and France's CAC 40 added 1% on the session. Asian stocks ended the session higher. China's Shanghai Index jumped 2.9%, Japan's Nikkei 225 added 1.5%, and Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index gained 1.5%. Citing a weakening global economic environment and the possibility of central bank intervention, UBS

Thursday. In 2011, UBS forecasts growth of 9% versus 9.3% previously. In 2012, UBS is forecasting growth of 8.3%, falling short of its previous 9% projection. On the economic calendar, initial and continuing jobless claims are set to be reported at 8:30 a.m. On the commodity front,

and

futures are lower in pre-market trading, with gold trading lower by about 2%. Energy futures are higher with

up near the $85.65 level and

futures are trading higher by about 0.5%.

futures are trading flat and

futures are trading about 0.75% higher this morning. On the earnings front, Big Lots

reported Q2 EPS of $0.52 on revenues of $1.17 billion; The Street was looking for $0.44 per share on revenues of $1.16 billion. Hormel Foods

reported Q3 EPS of $0.37 on revenues of $1.91 billion; The Street was looking for $0.35 per share on revenues of $1.87 billion. In corporate news, Apple's

Board of Directors announced that

, and the Board has named Tim Cook, previously Apple's Chief Operating Officer, as the company's new CEO. Jobs has been elected Chairman of the Board and Cook will join the Board, effective immediately. Finally, Dollar Tree

today announced it entered into an agreement with JPMorgan Chase Bank to

under a variable maturity accelerated share repurchase program. This concludes your news summary for August 25, 2011.