Financial Breakfast for August 29, 2011

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

Today in domestic pre-market trading, U.S equity futures are trading higher. At last check, Dow futures are up about 100 points and the U.S. dollar trades flat near the $73.75 level.

Earlier this morning, ISI Group upgraded O'Reilly (NASDAQ: ORLY) to Hold. View all of today's upgrades here.

Citigroup downgraded Robert Half (NYSE: RHI) to Hold. View all of today's downgrades here.

Deutsche Bank raised Tiffany's (NYSE: TIF) price target to $79 from $75 and Citigroup lowered ManpowerGroup (NYSE: MAN) price target to $48 from $79. View all other of today's analyst ratings here.

Overseas, European markets are higher in afternoon trading. Britain's FTSE 100 rose 1.2%, Germany's DAX gained 1.5% and France's CAC 40 added 1.9% on the session. Asian stocks ended the session mixed. China's Shanghai Index lost 1.35%, Japan's Nikkei 225 added 0.6%, and Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index gained 1.4%.

On the economic calendar, personal income, personal spending, and PCE data are set to be reported at 8:30 a.m. Pending home sales are due at 10:00 a.m. Finally, The Dallas Fed Manufacturing Index is set to report at 10:30 a.m.

On the commodity front, gold and silver futures are higher in pre-market trading, with gold trading higher by about 1%. Energy futures are mixed with crude oil up near the $85.50 level and gasoline futures are trading lower by about 1.25%. Natural Gas futures are trading down by about 1% and copper futures are trading about 0.4% lower this morning.

On the earnings front, LDK Solar (NYSE: LDK) reported Q2 EPS of $(0.62) on revenues of $499.4 million; The Street was looking for revenues of $714 million.

In corporate news, The Corporate Executive Board Company (NYSE: EXBD) today announced that its Board of Directors has approved a new $50 million stock repurchase program, which is authorized through Dec. 31, 2012.

This concludes your news summary for August 29, 2011.