A Peek Into The Market Before The Trading Starts

Pre-open movers US stock futures are mostly flat this morning. Futures for the Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped 8 points to 12,579.00 and S&P 500 index futures fell 2.40 points to 1,308.00. Nasdaq 100 futures gained 4.25 points to 2,429.50. A Peek Into Global Markets European markets were lower today. The STOXX Europe 600 Index declined 0.46%, London's FTSE 100 Index moved down 0.07%, French CAC 40 index fell 0.56% and German DAX 30 index dropped 0.39%. Asian markets ended higher, with Japan's Nikkei Stock Average surging 1.4663%, China's Shanghai Composite rising 1.00% and Australia's S&P/ASX 200 moving up 0.57%. Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index rose 0.8395% and India's Sensex surged 0.57%. Broker Recommendation Analysts at JP Morgan downgraded Johnson Controls Inc JCI from “overweight” to “neutral.” The target price for Johnson Controls has been lowered from $43 to $36. Johnson Controls shares dropped 0.80% to $32.20 in pre-market trading. Breaking news

• General Electric Company GE reported a decline in its fourth-quarter net profit on Friday. GE's quarterly profit fell to $3.8 billion, or $0.35 per share, from $4.8 billion, or $0.42 per share, in the year-ago period. To read the full news, click here.
• WNS Limited WNS today announced its collaboration with coAction.com, a leading provider of advanced business collaboration software, to further strengthen its capabilities in Order-to-Cash (O2C) solutions. To read the full news, click here.
• AZZ incorporated AZZ today announced that it has entered into an agreement to acquire substantially all of the assets of Galvan Metals, Inc. in Montreal, Canada. To read the full news, click here.
• SunTrust Banks Inc STI reported a 33% rise in its fourth-quarter profit. To read the full news, click here.