News Summary for July 29, 2011

This is your Benzinga news summary and traders' outlook for Friday, July 29, 2011, covering headlines from overnight and Friday's pre-market session.

Today in domestic pre-market trading, U.S. equity futures are trading lower as traders worry about when the decision on the debt ceiling will be reached. The U.S. dollar is trading slightly higher as the Euro trades lower.

Earlier this morning, Morgan Keegan upgraded Hill-Rom (NYSE: HRC) to Outperform and Oppenheimer upgraded EV Energy Partners (NASDAQ: EVEP) to Outperform. View all of today's upgrades here.

Piper Jaffray downgraded Vistaprint (NASDAQ: VPRT) to Underweight and Jefferies downgraded Harsco (NYSE: HSC) to Hold. View all of today's downgrades here.

JP Morgan raised Cerner's (NASDAQ: CERN) price target to $76 from $60 and Goldman Sachs raised Chesapeake Energy's (NYSE: CHK) price target to $41 from $40. View all other analyst ratings here.

Overseas, European markets were lower this morning. Britain's FTSE 100 fell about 0.6% and France's CAC 40 slipped 0.8% on the session. Asian stocks ended the session lower. China's Shanghai Index fell 0.3%, Japan's Nikkei 225 dropped 0.7%, and Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index slid 0.6%.

On the economic calendar, GDP for the second quarter, the Employment Cost Index, and Personal Consumption is set to be reported at 8:30 a.m. The Chicago Purchasing Manager Index is due at 9:45 a.m. and University of Michigan Confidence Index is due at 9:55 a.m.

On the commodity front, gold and silver futures are flat in pre-market trading, with gold near the$1618 per ounce level. Energy futures are lower with crude oil down 0.7% and gasoline trading lower by about 0.25% higher. Natural gas futures earlier this morning hit the lowest levels in a month at $4.177. Finally, copper futures are trading slightly lower this morning.

On the earnings front, Merck (NYSE: MRK) reported Q2 EPS of $0.95 on revenues of $12.15 billion; The Street was looking for $0.95 per share on revenues of $11.78 billion.

Newmont Mining (NYSE: NEM) reported Q2 EPS of $0.90 on revenues of $2.38 billion; The Street was looking for $0.98 per share on revenues of $2.51 billion.

Newell Rubbermaid (NYSE: NWL) reported Q2 EPS of $0.46 on revenues of $1.57 billion; The Street was looking for $0.42 per share on revenues of $1.55 billion.

In corporate news, Merck (NYSE: MRK) announced it expects to reduce its workforce, as measured at December 31, 2009, by an additional 12 to 13 percent by the end of 2015.

This concludes your news summary for July 29, 2011.