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 (NYSE: MR) to Outperform and JP Morgan upgraded Starwood Hotels (NYSE: HOT) to Outperform. View all of today's upgrades here.

Goldman Sachs downgraded Kroger (NYSE: KR) to Sell and downgraded Safeway (NYSE: SWY) to Sell as well. View all of today's downgrades here.

Citigroup initiates Pandora Media (NYSE: P) at Speculative Buy, BMC raised Xerox's (NYSE: WHR) price target to $14 from $13, and Goldman Sachs lowered PepsiCo's (NYSE: 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 (NYSE: 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 (NYSE: 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 (NYSE: 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 (NASDAQ: RIMM) announced the retirement of COO Don Morrison. The company also announced it will cut about 2,000 jobs.

Also, United Natural Foods (Nasdaq: UNFI) today announced that it has signed a three-year distribution agreement with Safeway (NYSE: SWY).

This concludes your news summary for July 25, 2011.