Financial Breakfast for August 30, 2011

This is your Benzinga news summary and traders' outlook for Tuesday, August 30, 2011, covering headlines from overnight and Tuesday's pre-market session. Today in domestic pre-market trading, U.S equity futures are trading lower. At last check, S&P futures are down by about 5 points or (0.43%) and the U.S. dollar trades higher near the $74.15 level. Earlier this morning, Bank of America upgraded Perry Ellis

to Buy and upgraded the Jones Group

to Buy as well. View all of

. Citigroup downgraded Robert Half

to Hold and Bank of America downgraded Gymboree

to Underweight. View all of

. Bank of America raised Donaldson Company's

price objective to $61 from $58 and Citigroup added Dick Sporting Goods

to its Top Pick and Best Idea List. View all other

. Overseas, European markets are mixed in afternoon trading. Britain's FTSE 100 rose 2.2%, Germany's DAX lost 0.4% and France's CAC 40 slid 0.25% on the session. Asian stocks ended the session mixed as well. China's Shanghai Index lost 0.4%, Japan's Nikkei 225 added 1.2%, and Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index gained 1.7%. On the economic calendar, the Case-Shiller 20-City Index is set to be reported at 9:00 a.m. The Consumer Confidence Index is due at 10:00 a.m. and the FOMC Minutes are to be released at 2:00 p.m. On the commodity front,

and

futures are higher in pre-market trading, with gold trading higher by about 0.25%. Energy futures are mixed with

down near the $87.00 level and

futures are trading higher by about 0.3%.

futures are trading down by about 0.6% and

futures are trading about 1% higher this morning. On the earnings front, Dollar General

reported Q2 EPS of $0.52 on revenues of $3.58 billion; The Street was looking for $0.48 per share on revenues of $3.54 billion. DSW

reported Q2 EPS of $0.74 on revenues of $476.3 million; The Street was looking for $0.63 per share on revenues of $459.4 million. In corporate news, DG

, today announced a definitive agreement

and rich media advertising unit for approximately $66 million in cash. Peabody Energy

and ArcelorMittal

today announced that PEAMCoal has

of all outstanding shares of Macarthur Coal for A$16.001 per share, valuing the equity in Macarthur at approximately A$4.8 billion. Finally, Starbucks Corporation

today announced that

Brewing system will be available throughout grocery stores and specialty retailers in the U.S. starting in November 2011. This concludes your news summary for August 30, 2011.