News Summary for June 22, 2011

This is your Benzinga news summary and traders' outlook for Wednesday, June 22, 2011, covering headlines from overnight and Wednesday's pre-market session. Today in domestic pre-market trading, U.S. equity futures are trading lower as the U.S. dollar is slightly higher this morning as investors wait for the Federal Open Market Committee's rate decision. The decision is expected at 12:30 p.m. At 2:15 p.m., Bernanke will follow-up on the announcement in his second press conference. More information about the FOMC announcement can be found here. Overseas last night, European stocks are mixed after Greek Prime Minister George Papandreou won the confidence vote to save his struggling country. Asian stocks rose on optimism of the potential rescue plan after the confidence vote. Japan's Nikkei rose for the third consecutive day, adding over one percent for the session. More information about the Greek vote of confidence can be found here. On the economic calendar today, the Housing Price Index is set be reported at 10:00 a.m. ET. The Federal Reserve will decide at 12:30 p.m. whether to raise interest rates or keep them unchanged. On the earnings front, Adobe Systems ADBE reported a second quarter earnings and revenue beat while reaffirming guidance for the third quarter. However, shares of Adobe are over 3% lower in pre-market trading after forecasting profit below analysts' expectations. Fedex reported an EPS of $1.75 versus a $1.72 estimate on revenues of $10.55B versus the $10.42B estimate. Earlier this morning, AstraZeneca AZN announced its plans to sell its Astra Tech dental and healthcare division to Dentsply International for about $1.8 billion in cash. On the commodity front, gold and silver futures are trading lower with silver falling over one percent on the session. Energy futures remain mixed with crude oil futures posting early loses and gasoline futures trading slightly higher on the session. In corporate news, Philips Electronics PHG warned yesterday of sharply lower profits at its lighting division because of weak demand in Europe. Shares of Philips Electronics fell over 13% in pre-market trading. This concludes your news summary for June 22, 2011.