News Summary for August 3, 2011

This is your Benzinga news summary and traders' outlook for Wednesday, August 3, 2011, covering headlines from overnight and Wednesday's pre-market session. Today in domestic pre-market trading, U.S. equity futures are set to rebound today after moving into negative territory for the year accompanied by concerns of a slowing economy. At last check, Dow futures are up over 40 points as Moody's and Fitch maintains the U.S. debt rating at AAA, however, assigns a negative outlook. Earlier this morning, Jefferies upgraded Allscripts MDRX to Overweight and Deutsche Bank upgraded Rock-Tenn RKT to Buy. View all of today's upgrades here. Goldman Sachs downgraded Ford F to Buy from Conviction Buy and downgraded Allstate ALL to Sell. View all of today's downgrades here. JP Morgan lowered Ferro Corp's FOE price target to $11 from $16 and removed AMR Corp's AMR price target. View all other analyst ratings here. Overseas, European markets were lower this morning. Britain's FTSE 100 fell 1.1% and France's CAC 40 slid 0.6% on the session. Asian stocks ended the session lower as well. China's Shanghai Index fell 0.3%, Japan's Nikkei 225 tumbled 2.1%, and Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index slid 1.9%. On the economic calendar, MBA Mortgage Applications came in this morning at 7.1% versus a -5.0% prior reading. Challenger Job Cuts came in at 59.4% versus a 5.3% prior reading. ADP Employment Change is due at 8:15 a.m.; the ISM Non-Manufacturing Index and Factory Orders are set to be reported at 10:00 a.m. On the commodity front, gold and silver futures are higher in pre-market trading, with gold hitting new all-time highs over night at $1675.90 per ounce. Energy futures are lower with crude oil down about $0.50 at $93.02 per barrel and gasoline futures trading lower by about 1%. Natural gas futures are trading flat this morning and copper futures are lower by 0.75% this morning. On the earnings front, Comcast CMCSA reported Q2 EPS of $0.42 on revenues of $14.33 billion; The Street was looking for $0.41 per share on revenues of $13.83 billion. Time Warner TWX reported Q2 EPS of $0.60 on revenues of $7 billion; The Street was looking for $0.56 per share on revenues of $6.81 billion. Agrium AGU reported Q2 EPS of $4.54 on revenues of $6.2 billion; The Street was looking for $4.29 per share on revenues of $5.48 billion. In corporate news, Global Traffic Network GNET today announced that it has entered into a definitive merger agreement to be acquired by an affiliate of GTCR for $14 per share. This concludes your news summary for August 3, 2011.