News Summary for August 15, 2011

This is your Benzinga news summary and traders' outlook for Monday, August 15, 2011, covering headlines from overnight and Monday's pre-market session. Today in domestic pre-market trading, U.S. equity futures are trading higher. At last check, Dow futures are up about 40 points and the U.S. dollar trades flat near the $74.75 level. Earlier this morning, Goldman Sachs upgraded Family Dollar FDO to Buy and upgraded IBM IBM to Buy. View all of today's upgrades here. Goldman Sachs downgraded Lexmark LXK to Sell and Bank of America downgraded Illinois Tool Works ITW to Underperform. View all of today's downgrades here. Sterne Agee lowered UMB Financial's UMBF price target to $46 from $50 and Goldman Sachs added Visa V to its Conviction-Buy List. View all other of today's analyst ratings here. Overseas, European markets were higher in afternoon trading. Britain's FTSE 100 added 0.4%, Germany's DAX gained 0.3% and France's CAC 40 rose 0.1% on the session. Asian stocks ended the session higher as well. China's Shanghai Index added 1.3%, Japan's Nikkei 225 gained 1.4%, and Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index jumped 3.3%. On the economic calendar, Empire Manufacturing Index is set to be reported at 8:30 a.m., net TIC-flows are due at 9:00 a.m., and the NAHB Housing Market Index is to report at 10:00 a.m. On the commodity front, gold and silver futures are flat in pre-market trading, with gold near the $1750 an ounce level. Energy futures are also flat with crude oil near $85.00 per barrel and gasoline futures trading slightly negative. Natural Gas futures are trading slightly positive and copper futures are flat this morning. On the earnings front, Lowe's LOW reported Q2 EPS of $0.68 on revenues of $14.5 billion; The Street was looking for $0.66 per share on revenues of $14.75 billion. Estee Lauder LOW reported Q4 EPS of $0.25 on revenues of $2.06 billion; The Street was looking for $0.24 per share on revenues of $2.03 billion. In corporate news, Google Inc. GOOG and Motorola Mobility MMI today announced that they have entered into a definitive agreement under which Google will acquire Motorola Mobility for $40.00 per share in cash, or a total of about $12.5 billion, a premium of 63% to the closing price of Motorola Mobility shares on Friday, August 12, 2011. The transaction was unanimously approved by the boards of directors of both companies. Also, Time Warner Cable TWC has reached a deal to purchase Carlyle Group's Insight Communications for about $3 billion, according to Bloomberg sources. Finally, Transocean RIG today announced an all cash voluntary offer for 100% of the shares of Aker Drilling for NOK 26.50 per share or $1.43 billion. This concludes your news summary for August 15, 2011.