US Stock Futures Up; Jobless Claims Data In Focus

US stock futures rose in early pre-market trade, after Chinese trade data. Data on jobless claims for the latest week will be released at 8:30 a.m. ET. Futures for the Dow Jones Industrial Average jumped 53 points to 15,495.00, while the Standard & Poor's 500 index futures gained 6 points to 1,694.20. Futures for the Nasdaq 100 index rose 12.75 points to 3,128.75.

European markets were higher today, with the Spanish Ibex Index surging 0.71%, London's FTSE 100 index rising 0.31% and STOXX Europe 600 Index gaining 0.19%. German DAX 30 index surged 0.35% and French CAC 40 Index rose 0.31%. The European Central Bank lowered its growth view for the eurozone to -0.6% from -0.4% for 2013. Greek unemployment rate climbed to 27.6% in May, versus an upwardly revised 27.0% in April. Asian markets ended mostly higher after Chinese trade data. China's trade balance came in at $17.82 billion in July, versus economists' estimates of $26.9 billion. The country's imports climbed 10.9% in July, while exports increased 5.1%. China's Shanghai Composite dropped 0.09%, while Japan's Nikkei Stock Average fell 1.59%. Australia's ASX/S&P500 surged 1.01%, India's Sensex jumped 0.67% and Hong Kong's Heng Seng Index gained 0.31%.

Analysts at JP Morgan downgraded Target

from “overweight” to “neutral.” The target price for Target is set to $74. Target's shares fell 0.15% to close at $71.68 yesterday.