Financial Breakfast for August 22, 2011

This is your Benzinga news summary and traders' outlook for Monday, August 22, 2011, covering headlines from overnight and Monday's pre-market session. Today in domestic pre-market trading, U.S equity futures are trading higher. Also, the price of gold hit a new record high, as investors around the world again scrambled for cover amid renewed recession fears and Citigroup's C raised near-term price outlook to $1,650 per ounce for 2012 versus $1,325 previously. At last check, Dow futures are up about 100 points and the U.S. dollar trades slightly lower near the $74 level. Earlier this morning, Citigroup upgraded Ecolab ECL to Buy and Aurgia upgraded Hewlett-Packard HPQ to Buy. View all of today's upgrades here. Bank of America downgraded Intrepid Potash IPI to Neutral and Piper Jaffray downgraded New York & Company NWY to Neutral. View all of today's downgrades here. Benchmark lowers Exxon Mobile's XOM price target to $64 from $74 and Goldman Sachs lowered AnnTaylor Stores' ANN price target to $25 from $27. View all other of today's analyst ratings here. Overseas, European markets are higher in afternoon trading. Britain's FTSE 100 rose 1.5%, Germany's DAX gained 0.5% and France's CAC 40 added 1.6% on the session. Asian stocks ended the session mixed. China's Shanghai Index dropped 0.7%, Japan's Nikkei 225 lost 1%, and Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index gained 0.5%. Also, Muammar el-Qaddafi's hold on Libya crumbled over the weekend, as rebel forces marched on the nation's capital of Tripoli and arrested the leader's two sons. On the economic calendar, the Chicago Fed Activity Index is set to be reported at 8:30 a.m. MBA mortgage foreclosures and delinquencies are due 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 at $1898.60 an ounce late last night. Energy futures are mixed with crude oil up near $83 per barrel and gasoline futures are trading lower by about 0.75%. Natural Gas futures are trading lower by about 1% and copper futures are trading flat this morning. On the earnings front, Suntech Power STP reported Q2 EPS of $(0.19) on revenues of $830.7 million; The Street was looking for $0.16 per share on revenues of $799.7 million. In corporate news, Lowe's Companies LOW has authorized the repurchase of up to $5 billion of the company's common stock. Although this new repurchase authorization has no expiration date, the company expects to use the full amount over the next two to three years. Also, the possible purchase of Dollar Thrifty Automotive Group DTG by Hertz Global HTZ or Avis Budget Group CAR heated up this weekend, as Hertz and Avis have been conducting regulatory reviews over the possible purchase of Dollar Thrifty. Dollar Thrifty said it wants final offers from the two companies by early October. This concludes your news summary for August 22, 2011.