News Summary for August 11, 2011

This is your Benzinga news summary and traders' outlook for Thursday, August 11, 2011, covering headlines from overnight and Thursday's pre-market session.

Today in domestic pre-market trading, U.S. equity futures are trading lower after a 500 point drop in the Dow yesterday. At last check, Dow futures are down about 75 points and the U.S. dollar trades flat near the $74.80 level.

Earlier this morning, Morgan Stanley upgraded Cisco Systems (NASDAQ: CSCO) to Overweight, Bank of America upgraded Zions Bancorp (NASDAQ: ZION) to Neutral and Compass Point upgraded Comerica (NYSE: CMA) to Buy. View all of today's upgrades here.

Goldman Sachs downgraded Cenovus Energy (NYSE: CVE) to Neutral and Bank of America downgraded Celanese Corp (NYSE: CE) to Neutral. View all of today's downgrades here.

Jefferies lowered Computer Sciences' (NYSE: CSC) price target to $32 from $42 and Goldman Sachs added Exxon Mobile (NYSE: XOM) to its Conviction-Buy List. View all other of today's analyst ratings here.

Overseas, European markets moved lower in afternoon trading. Britain's FTSE 100 lost 0.5%, Germany's DAX slipped 1.4% and France's CAC 40 dropped 1.5% on the session. Asian stocks ended the session slightly lower. China's Shanghai Index added 1.3%, Japan's Nikkei 225 slipped 0.6%, and Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index fell 0.95%.

On the economic calendar, initial jobless claims, continuing jobless claims, and the trade balance is set to be reported at 8:30 a.m. On the commodity front, gold and silver futures are slightly negative in pre-market trading, with gold rallying over $1800 per ounce late last night. Energy futures are flat with crude oil near $82.50 per barrel and gasoline futures trading slightly negative. Natural Gas futures are trading slightly lower and copper futures are up over 2% this morning.

On the earnings front, Kohl's (NYSE: KSS) reported Q2 EPS of $1.09 on revenues of $4.25 billion; The Street was looking for $1.02 per share on revenues of $4.31 billion. Kohl's increased its fiscal 2011 guidance from $4.25 to $4.40 per diluted share to $4.45 to $4.60 per diluted share.

Sara Lee (NYSE: SLE) reported Q4 EPS of $0.20 on revenues of $2.3 billion; The Street was looking for $0.20 per share on revenues of $2.22 billion

Yesterday, Cisco Systems (NASDAQ: CSCO) reported Q4 EPS of $0.40 on revenues of $11.2 billion; The Street was looking for $0.38 per share on revenues of $10.98 billion.

In corporate news, AOL Inc. (NYSE: AOL) earlier today announced that its Board of Directors has approved a $250 million stock repurchase program, effective August 10, 2011.

Also, Covidien (NYSE: COV) today announced that its Board of Directors has authorized a program to purchase up to $2 billion of the Company's ordinary shares from time to time, based on market conditions.

Finally, Bank of America (NYSE: BAC) is in exploratory talks to sell part of its $17 billion stake in China Construction Bank to the principal investment funds of Kuwait and Qatar.

This concludes your news summary for August 11, 2011.