A Peek Into The Market Before The Trading Starts

Pre-open movers US stock futures are higher this morning. Futures for the Dow Jones Industrial Average surged 56 points to 12,800.00 and S&P 500 index futures rose 6.10 points to 1,348.00. Nasdaq 100 futures gained 12 points to 2,601.50. A Peek Into Global Markets European markets were higher today. The STOXX Europe 600 Index surged 0.44%, London's FTSE 100 Index moved up 0.33%, French CAC 40 index rose 0.70% and German DAX 30 index gained 0.29%. Asian markets ended lower, with Japan's Nikkei Stock Average declining 0.64%, China's Shanghai Composite dropping 0.65% and Australia's S&P/ASX 200 moving down 1.42%. Hong Kong's Hang Seng index dipped 0.86% and India's Sensex dropped 0.16%. Broker Recommendation Analysts at Ladenburg Thalmann downgraded Vermillion Inc VRML from “neutral” to “sell.” Vermillion's shares closed at $3.00 yesterday. Breaking news

• GE GE and Chesapeake Energy Corporation CHK today announced a collaboration to develop infrastructure solutions that will help accelerate the adoption of natural gas as a transportation fuel. To read the full news, click here.
• Acacia Research Corporation ACTG announced today that its Smooth Impact LLC subsidiary has entered into a license agreement with Easy Strike Co., Ltd., Apex Tool Group, LLC, Cooper Tools, LLC, Bold Inc., and Test-Rite Products Corp., covering patents directed to impact instrument technology.To read the full news, click here.
• AECOM Technology Corporation ACM, announced today that it has been awarded an emergency recovery and technical support services contract from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA). To read the full news, click here.
• Arrowhead Research Corporation ARWR announced today that it has released a white paper describing the health problem posed by the hepatitis B virus, the substantial unmet need for chronic HBV infected patients, and how Arrowhead's Dynamic Polyconjugate enabled RNAi therapeutic in development could potentially address deficiencies of current treatment options.To read the full news, click here.