News Summary for July 22, 2011

This is your Benzinga news summary and traders' outlook for Friday, July 22, 2011, covering headlines from overnight and Friday's pre-market session. Today in domestic pre-market trading, U.S. equity futures are trading higher following the approval of a deeper Greek rescue plan. The U.S. dollar and the Euro are both flat this morning. Earlier this morning, Benchmark upgraded DigitalGlobe DGI to Buy and Wunderlich Securities upgraded EV Energy Partners EVEP to Buy. View all of today's upgrades here. Deutsche Bank downgraded SFN Group SFN to Hold and William Blair downgraded Microsoft MSFT to Market Perform. View all of today's downgrades here. JP Morgan lowered Whirlpool's WHR price target to $82 from $90, and Wedbush raised Goodrich's GR price target to $119 from $102. View all other analyst ratings here. Overseas, European markets were higher this morning. Britain's FTSE 100 added about 0.9% and France's CAC 40 gained 1% on the session. Asian stocks were higher on the session as well. China's Shanghai Index gained 0.2%, Japan's Nikkei 225 jumped 1.2%, and Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index spiked 2.1%. There are no economic releases today. On the commodity front, gold and silver futures are positive in pre-market trading, with gold nearing the $1600 per ounce level. Energy futures are flat with crude oil near the $99.50 per barrel level, and gasoline futures are trading near the 3.077 level; however, natural gas futures are up over 0.5%. Finally, copper futures are up about 0.5% as well. On the earnings front, Verizon Wireless VZ reported Q2 EPS of $0.57 on revenues of $27.54 billion; The Street was looking for $0.55 per share on revenues of $27.43 billion. Caterpillar CAT reported Q2 EPS of $1.72 on revenues of $14.2 billion; The Street was looking for $1.79 per share on revenues of $13.52 billion. Xerox XRX reported Q2 EPS of $0.27 on revenues of $5.6 billion; The Street was looking for $0.24 per share on revenues of $5.6 billion. Also, General Electric GE reported Q2 EPS of $0.34 on revenues of $35.63 billion; The Street was looking for $0.32 per share on revenues of $34.72 billion. Read more here. Yesterday, Microsoft MSFT reported Q2 EPS of $0.69 on revenues of $17.37 billion; The Street was looking for $0.58 per share on revenues of $17.25 billion. Read more here. In corporate news, The Verizon Board of Directors has named Verizon COO Lowell C. McAdam as president and CEO of Verizon Communications Inc. VZ, effective Aug. 1. Ivan G. Seidenberg will step down from the CEO role but remain chairman. This concludes your news summary for July 22, 2011.