A Peek Into The Market Before The Trading Starts - Accenture (NYSE:ACN)

Pre-open movers

US stock futures are higher this morning, as investors are awaiting housing starts data. Futures for the Dow Jones Industrial Average surged 33 points to 13,309.00 and S&P 500 index futures rose 2.50 points to 1,443.60. Nasdaq 100 futures climbed 8.50 points to 2,710.25.

A Peek Into Global Markets

European markets were higher today. The STOXX Europe 600 Index rose 0.50%, London's FTSE 100 Index gained 0.60%, French CAC 40 Index climbed 0.45% and German DAX 30 index rose 0.22%. Asian markets ended mostly higher, with Japan's Nikkei Stock Average rising 2.39%, China's Shanghai Composite dropping 0.01% and Australia's S&P/ASX 200 rising 0.49%. Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index rose 0.57% and India's Sensex climbed 0.57%.

Broker Recommendation

Analysts at Evercore Partners upgraded Morgan Stanley

from “equal weight” to “overweight.” Morgan Stanley shares gained 0.68% to $19.25 in pre-market trading.

Breaking news

Accenture ACN has won a new five-year contract with Unilever UL to provide human resources (HR) business process outsourcing (BPO) services that benefit more than 130,000 Unilever employees in over 100 countries and introduce a series of service improvements focused on enhancing the user experience. To read the full news, click here.
Oncothyreon ONTY today announced that the pivotal Phase 3 clinical trial of L-BLP25 known as START did not meet its primary endpoint of an improvement in overall survival in patients with unresectable, locally advanced stage IIIA or stage IIIB non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). To read the full news, click here.
HARMAN HAR, said today that it has reached an agreement to acquire Martin Professional A/S of Denmark, a world leading provider of lighting solutions for the entertainment, architectural, and commercial sectors, for EUR 110 million. To read the full news, click here.
Imperial Holdings IFT announced today it and all other relevant parties have executed a non-binding term sheet to settle the shareholder class action lawsuits and derivative demands instituted against the Company and certain of its current and former directors and officers. To read the full news, click here.

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