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

over the weekend. Earlier this morning, Citigroup upgraded Eaton Vance (NYSE:

) to Hold and Goldman Sachs upgraded RadioShack (NYSE:

) to Conviction-List Buy. View all of

. Morgan Keegan downgraded Skilled Healthcare (NYSE:

) to Market Perform and downgraded Sun Healthcare (NASDAQ:

) to Market Perform. View all of

. Citigroup lowered Cerner's (NYSE:

) price target to $57 from $66 and Morgan Keegan raised Key Energy Service (NYSE:

) price target to $27 from $23. View all other

. 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,

and

futures are lower in pre-market trading, with silver down about 1.25%. Energy futures are higher with

up a little over $1 at $96.77 per barrel. and

trading higher by about 1% higher.

futures are trading higher this morning and

futures are flat this morning. On the earnings front, Humana (NYSE:

) 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 (NYSE:

) 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 (NYSE:

) and Arcelormittal (NYSE:

)

Macarthur Coal for total value of $15.66 per share. Also, Europe's largest bank HSBC Holdings (NYSE:

) 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.