Financial Breakfast for August 25, 2011

This is your Benzinga news summary and traders' outlook for Thursday, August 25, 2011, covering headlines from overnight and Thursday's pre-market session. Today in domestic pre-market trading, U.S equity futures are trading slightly higher. At last check, Dow futures are up about 25 points and the U.S. dollar trades flat near the $74 level. Earlier this morning, Bank of America upgraded Casey's General Stores CASY to Buy and KBW upgraded Pennsylvania REIT PEI to Outperform. View all of today's upgrades here. Collin Stewart downgraded China Sunergy CSUN to Neutral. View all of today's downgrades here. Goldman Sachs lowered United Therapeutics' UTHR price target to $52 from $82 and Citigroup lowered Avon Products' AVP price target to $30 from $35. View all other of today's analyst ratings here. Overseas, European markets are higher in afternoon trading. Britain's FTSE 100 rose 0.1%, Germany's DAX gained 0.75% and France's CAC 40 added 1% on the session. Asian stocks ended the session higher. China's Shanghai Index jumped 2.9%, Japan's Nikkei 225 added 1.5%, and Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index gained 1.5%. Citing a weakening global economic environment and the possibility of central bank intervention, UBS UBS reduced its 2011 and 2012 growth projections for China Thursday. In 2011, UBS forecasts growth of 9% versus 9.3% previously. In 2012, UBS is forecasting growth of 8.3%, falling short of its previous 9% projection. On the economic calendar, initial and continuing jobless claims are set to be reported at 8:30 a.m. On the commodity front, gold and silver futures are lower in pre-market trading, with gold trading lower by about 2%. Energy futures are higher with crude oil up near the $85.65 level and gasoline futures are trading higher by about 0.5%. Natural Gas futures are trading flat and copper futures are trading about 0.75% higher this morning. On the earnings front, Big Lots BIG reported Q2 EPS of $0.52 on revenues of $1.17 billion; The Street was looking for $0.44 per share on revenues of $1.16 billion. Hormel Foods HRL reported Q3 EPS of $0.37 on revenues of $1.91 billion; The Street was looking for $0.35 per share on revenues of $1.87 billion. In corporate news, Apple's AAPL Board of Directors announced that Steve Jobs has resigned as Chief Executive Officer, and the Board has named Tim Cook, previously Apple's Chief Operating Officer, as the company's new CEO. Jobs has been elected Chairman of the Board and Cook will join the Board, effective immediately. Finally, Dollar Tree DLTR today announced it entered into an agreement with JPMorgan Chase Bank to repurchase $200 million of its common shares under a variable maturity accelerated share repurchase program. This concludes your news summary for August 25, 2011.