News Summary for July 25, 2011

This is your Benzinga news summary and traders' outlook for Monday, July 25, 2011, covering headlines from overnight and Monday's pre-market session. Today in domestic pre-market trading, U.S. equity futures are trading lower after Congress failed to work out a deal to raise the debt ceiling over the weekend. The U.S. dollar and the Euro are both flat this morning. Earlier this morning, Credit Suisse upgraded Mindray Medical MR to Outperform and JP Morgan upgraded Starwood Hotels HOT to Outperform. View all of today's upgrades here. Goldman Sachs downgraded Kroger KR to Sell and downgraded Safeway SWY to Sell as well. View all of today's downgrades here. Citigroup initiates Pandora Media P at Speculative Buy, BMC raised Xerox's WHR price target to $14 from $13, and Goldman Sachs lowered PepsiCo's PEP price target to $74 from $83. View all other analyst ratings here. Overseas, European markets were slightly lower this morning. Britain's FTSE 100 fell about 0.1% and France's CAC 40 slipped 0.2% on the session. Asian stocks were lower on the session as well. China's Shanghai Index dropped 3%, Japan's Nikkei 225 fell 0.8%, and Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index lost 0.7%. On the economic calendar, the Chicago Fed Activity Index is set to be reported at 8:30 a.m. and the Dallas Fed Manufacturing Index is due at 10:30 a.m. On the commodity front, gold and silver futures are positive in pre-market trading, with gold over the $1615 per ounce level, hitting new all-time highs earlier this morning. Energy futures are lower with crude oil dropping over $1 dollar per barrel, currently near the $98.90 level, and gasoline futures are trading near the 3.062 level; however, natural gas futures are up over 0.5%. Finally, copper futures are lower by about 0.5%. On the earnings front, Kimberly-Clark KMB reported Q2 EPS of $1.18 on revenues of $5.26 billion; The Street was looking for $1.15 per share on revenues of $5.13 billion. Bank of Hawaii BOH reported Q2 EPS of $0.74; The Street was looking for $0.78 per share. The company also authorized an increase in its buyback program by $120 million. Lorillard LO reported Q2 EPS of $2.05 on revenues of $1.69 billion; The Street was looking for $2.02 per share on revenues of $1.15 billion. In corporate news, Research in Motion RIMM announced the retirement of COO Don Morrison. The company also announced it will cut about 2,000 jobs. Also, United Natural Foods UNFI today announced that it has signed a three-year distribution agreement with Safeway SWY. This concludes your news summary for July 25, 2011.