News Summary for July 1, 2011

This is your Benzinga news summary and traders' outlook for Friday, July 1, 2011, covering headlines from overnight and Friday's pre-market session. Today in domestic pre-market trading, U.S. equity futures and the U.S. dollar are trading relatively flat as traders wait for key economic data to be released. Overseas, European and Asian equity markets rose after Greek Parliament passed a second vote on austerity measures. Most world equity markets were positive on the day, with the most notable mover being Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index, which is trading over 1.5% higher on the session. Britain's FTSE 100 Index rose 0.3% and Japan's Nikkei Index gained over 0.5%. On the economic calendar today, University of Michigan Confidence Index is set to be reported at 9:55 a.m. ET. Also, construction spending for the period of May and the ISM Manufacturing Index for June are due at 10:00 a.m. On the commodity front, gold and silver futures are trading lower. Silver is posting early losses of over 2%. Energy futures are also trading lower with crude oil futures trading near 1% lower, close to the $94 per barrel level. Copper is trading flat on the session. Finally, natural gas futures are trading nearly 1% lower as most commodities are lower in pre-market trading. On the earnings front, Apollo Group APOL reported earnings and revenues higher than what The Street was expecting. The company reaffirmed fiscal 2012 earnings and revenues. At the time of writing, shares of Apollo Group were trading over 2.5% higher. Darden Restaurants DRI reported fourth quarter results in-line to what The Street was expecting. The CEO appeared on CNBC television this morning after the company increased its quarterly dividend to $0.43 per share from $0.32 per share (a 34% increase). In corporate news, AstraZeneca's AZN hit drug, Nexium, won approval in Japan. Finally, the U.S. trade panel upheld a ruling against Eastman Kodak EK on patent litigation over cellphone camera technology. Shares of Kodak traded over 14% lower in the pre-market session. This concludes your news summary for July 1, 2011.