News Summary for August 1, 2011

This is your Benzinga news summary and traders' outlook for Monday, August 1, 2011, covering headlines from overnight and Monday's pre-market session. Today in domestic pre-market trading, U.S. equity futures are trading higher and the U.S. Dollar lower after Republican and Democratic leaders in the Senate and House of Representatives announced a deal to raise the nation's debt ceiling over the weekend. Earlier this morning, Citigroup upgraded Eaton Vance EV to Hold and Goldman Sachs upgraded RadioShack RSH to Conviction-List Buy. View all of today's upgrades here. Morgan Keegan downgraded Skilled Healthcare SKH to Market Perform and downgraded Sun Healthcare SUNH to Market Perform. View all of today's downgrades here. Citigroup lowered Cerner's ITT price target to $57 from $66 and Morgan Keegan raised Key Energy Service KEG price target to $27 from $23. View all other analyst ratings here. Overseas, European markets were higher this morning. Britain's FTSE 100 fell popped 1.3% and France's CAC 40 added 1% on the session. Asian stocks ended the session higher as well. China's Shanghai Index rose 0.1%, Japan's Nikkei 225 jumped 1.3%, and Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index gained 1%. On the economic calendar, construction spending, ISM Manufacturing Index, and ISM Prices Paid Index are all set to be reported at 10:00 a.m. On the commodity front, gold and silver futures are lower in pre-market trading, with silver down about 1.25%. Energy futures are higher with crude oil up a little over $1 at $96.77 per barrel. and gasoline trading higher by about 1% higher. Natural gas futures are trading higher this morning and copper futures are flat this morning. On the earnings front, Humana HUM reported Q2 EPS of $2.50 on revenues of $9.28 billion; The Street was looking for $2.06 per share on revenues of $9.32 billion. The company raised 2011 fiscal year EPS guidance to $7.50-$7.60 versus $7.07 estimate. Allstate ALL reported Q2 EPS of $(1.23) on revenues of $8.08 billion; The Street was looking for $(1.56) per share on revenues of $7.98 billion. In corporate news, Peabody Energy BTU and Arcelormittal MT submitted an offer to acquire Macarthur Coal for total value of $15.66 per share. Also, Europe's largest bank HSBC Holdings HBC announced this morning a cost-saving initiative to cut 30,000 jobs from its workforce by 2013. This concludes your news summary for August 1, 2011.