News Summary for July 20, 2011

This is your Benzinga news summary and traders' outlook for Thursday, July 21, 2011, covering headlines from overnight and Thursday's pre-market session. Today in domestic pre-market trading, U.S. equity futures are trading slightly lower as traders wait for several blue-chip companies to report quarterly earnings. The U.S. dollar is trading higher this morning as the Euro falls over 0.25%. Earlier this morning, Deutsche Bank upgraded PetSmart PETM to Hold and upgraded FirstEnergy FE to Buy. View all of today's upgrades here. RBC downgraded Clorox CLX to Sector Perform and Citi downgraded Toll Brothers TOL to Hold. View all of today's downgrades here. Credit Suisse removed Bank of America BAC from its Focus List, Deutsche Bank raised Tractor Supply Co's TSCO price target to $80 from $70, and Goldman Sachs raised F5 Networks' FFIV price target to $98 from $94. View all other analyst ratings here. Overseas, European markets were lower this morning. Britain's FTSE 100 fell about 0.25% and France's CAC 40 shed 0.1% on the session. Asian stocks were lower on the session as well. China's Shanghai Index shed 1%, Japan's Nikkei 225 was flat, and Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index fell 0.1%. On the economic calendar today, initial and continuing claims are set to be reported at 8:30 a.m. Phili Fed Manufacturing Index, Leading Economic Indicators, and FHFA Housing Price Index is due at 10:00 a.m. On the commodity front, gold and silver futures are slightly positive in pre-market trading, with gold at the $1600 per ounce level. Energy futures are slightly lower with crude oil down about 0.25% on the session, around the $98 per barrel level, and gasoline futures are trading about 0.5% lower on the session; however, natural gas futures are up over 0.5%. Finally, copper futures are taking the biggest hit this mornings, down about 1%. On the earnings front, investment bank Morgan Stanley MS reported Q2 EPS of $(0.38) on revenues of $9.28 billion; The Street was looking for $(0.62) per share on revenues of $8.04 billion. Healthcare company Baxter International BAX reported Q2 EPS of $1.07 on revenues of $3.54 billion; The Street was looking for $1.02 per share on revenues of $3.38 billion. Also, Eli Lilly LLY reported Q2 EPS of $1.18 on revenues of $6.25 billion; The Street was looking for $1.17 per share on revenues of $5.99 billion. Read more here. Yesterday, Intel INTC reported Q2 EPS of $0.59 on revenues of $13.1 billion; The Street was looking for $0.51 per share on revenues of $12.82 billion. Read more here. Also yesterday, Qualcomm QCOM reported Q3 EPS of $0.73 on revenues of $3.62 billion; The Street was looking for $0.71 per share on revenues of $3.59 billion. Read more here. In corporate news, Express Scripts ESRX has agreed to buy competitor Medco Health Solutions MHS for $29.1 billion, making it one of the largest M&A deals of the year. here. This concludes your news summary for July 21, 2011.