News Summary for July 15, 2011

This is your Benzinga news summary and traders' outlook for Friday, July 15, 2011, covering headlines from overnight and Friday pre-market session.

Today in domestic pre-market trading, U.S. equity futures are trading slightly higher despite a U.S. debt downgrade warning by the S&P. The U.S. dollar is trading flat this morning.

Earlier this morning, JP Morgan upgraded Rock-Tenn (NYSE: RKT) to Outperform and BMO upgraded Walter Energy (NYSE: WLT) to Outperform. View all of today's upgrades here.

Jefferies downgraded Qlik Technologies (NASDAQ: QLIK) to Hold. View all of today's downgrades here and view all otheranalyst ratings here.

Overseas, European markets were mixed this morning. Britain's FTSE 100 added about 0.1% and France's CAC 40 fell 0.4% on the session. Asian stocks were also mixed on the session. China's Shanghai Index gained 0.4%, Japan's Nikkei 225 added 0.4%, and Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index fell 0.3%.

On the economic calendar today, the Consumer Price Index and Empire Manufacturing for the period of June is set to be reported at 8:30 a.m. Industrial production is due at 9:15 a.m. and UofM confidence data is set to be reported at 9:55 a.m.

On the commodity front, gold and silver futures are lower in pre-market trading, with silver trading about 0.5% lower. Energy futures are mixed with crude oil flat, near the $96 per barrel level, and gasoline futures near the $3.11 level, or down about 0.25%; however, natural gas futures are up about 0.5% on the session. Finally, copper futures are trading flat on today's pre-market session.

On the earnings front, tech giant Google (NASDAQ: GOOG) reported Q2 EPS of $8.74 on revenues of $6.92 billion; The Street was looking for $7.83 per share on revenues of $6.55 billion. Revenues increased 36% year over year.

Also, toy company Mattel reported Q2 EPS of $0.23 on revenues of $1.16 billion; The Street was looking for $0.16 per share on revenues of $1.11 billion.

In corporate news, Clorox (NYSE: CLX) received a proposed offering from Carl Icahn for $76.50 per share.

Finally, BHP Billiton (NYSE: BHP) announced its plans to buy Petrohawk Energy Corp (NYSE: HK) for $12.1 billion in cash or $38.75 per share.

Notable companies to go ex-dividend today include Brink's Company (NYSE: BCO), A Schulman (NASDAQ SHLM), and Tata Motors (NYSE: TTM).

This concludes your news summary for July 15, 2011.