News Summary for July 15, 2011

This is your Benzinga news summary and traders' outlook for Friday, July 15, 2011, covering headlines from overnight and Friday pre-market session. Today in domestic pre-market trading, U.S. equity futures are trading slightly higher despite a U.S. debt downgrade warning by the S&P. The U.S. dollar is trading flat this morning. Earlier this morning, JP Morgan upgraded Rock-Tenn RKT to Outperform and BMO upgraded Walter Energy WLT to Outperform. View all of today's upgrades here. Jefferies downgraded Qlik Technologies QLIK to Hold. View all of today's downgrades here and view all otheranalyst ratings here. Overseas, European markets were mixed this morning. Britain's FTSE 100 added about 0.1% and France's CAC 40 fell 0.4% on the session. Asian stocks were also mixed on the session. China's Shanghai Index gained 0.4%, Japan's Nikkei 225 added 0.4%, and Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index fell 0.3%. On the economic calendar today, the Consumer Price Index and Empire Manufacturing for the period of June is set to be reported at 8:30 a.m. Industrial production is due at 9:15 a.m. and UofM confidence data is set to be reported at 9:55 a.m. On the commodity front, gold and silver futures are lower in pre-market trading, with silver trading about 0.5% lower. Energy futures are mixed with crude oil flat, near the $96 per barrel level, and gasoline futures near the $3.11 level, or down about 0.25%; however, natural gas futures are up about 0.5% on the session. Finally, copper futures are trading flat on today's pre-market session. On the earnings front, tech giant Google GOOG reported Q2 EPS of $8.74 on revenues of $6.92 billion; The Street was looking for $7.83 per share on revenues of $6.55 billion. Revenues increased 36% year over year. Also, toy company Mattel reported Q2 EPS of $0.23 on revenues of $1.16 billion; The Street was looking for $0.16 per share on revenues of $1.11 billion. In corporate news, Clorox CLX received a proposed offering from Carl Icahn for $76.50 per share. Finally, BHP Billiton BHP announced its plans to buy Petrohawk Energy Corp HK for $12.1 billion in cash or $38.75 per share. Notable companies to go ex-dividend today include Brink's Company BCO, A Schulman (NASDAQ SHLM), and Tata Motors TTM. This concludes your news summary for July 15, 2011.