News Summary for August 9, 2011

This is your Benzinga news summary and traders' outlook for Tuesday, August 9, 2011, covering headlines from overnight and Tuesday's pre-market session. Today in domestic pre-market trading, U.S. equity futures are set for another volatile morning as traders wait for the Federal Reserve's statement later today. At last check, Dow futures are up slightly and the U.S. dollar trades lower near the $74.50 level. Earlier this morning, Goldman Sachs upgraded Edward Lifesciences EW to Conviction-List Buy, Jefferies upgraded Merck MRK to Buy, and Citigroup upgraded Wynn Resorts WYNN to Hold. View all of today's upgrades here. Goldman Sachs downgraded Medtronic MDT to Neutral and Credit Suisse downgraded CTC Media CTCM to Underperform. View all of today's downgrades here. JP Morgan lowered Cooper Tire CTB price target to $16 from $30 and lowered Scotts Miracle-Grow's SMG price target to $45 from $56. View all other analyst ratings here. Overseas, European markets were lower in afternoon trading. Britain's FTSE 100 fell 1.6% and France's CAC 40 slipped 1.4% on the session, recovering from early morning losses of 5%. Asian stocks ended the session lower as well. China's Shanghai Index was slightly lower, Japan's Nikkei 225 sank 1.7%, and Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index tumbled over 5%. On the economic calendar, non-farm productivity for the second quarter is set to be reported at 8:30 a.m. and the FOMC rate decision is due at 2:15 p.m. On the commodity front, gold and silver futures are mixed in pre-market trading, with gold hitting new all-time highs of $1782.50 per ounce level and silver down about 1.25%. Energy futures are slightly lower with crude oil near $81.00 per barrel and gasoline futures trading down about.0.1%. Natural gas futures are trading flat and copper futures are up over 0.75% this morning. On the earnings front, AOL AOL reported Q2 EPS of $(0.11) on revenues of $542.2 million, which may not be comparable to The Street's estimate of $0.04 per share on revenues of $530.37 million. Dish Networks DISH reported Q2 EPS of $0.75 on revenues of $3.59 billion; The Street was looking for $0.79 per share on revenues of $3.41 billion. Booz Allen Hamilton BAH reported Q2 EPS of $0.41 on revenues of $1.45 billion; The Street was looking for $0.39 per share on revenues of $1.42 billion. In corporate news, Ralcorp Holdings, Inc. RAH today announced that it has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire the North American private brand refrigerated dough business of Sara Lee Corp. SLE, for approximately $545 million. Also, Capital One COF is said to be in advanced talks to purchase HSBC's $30 billion U.S. credit card business. This concludes your news summary for August 9, 2011.