US Stock Futures Up Ahead Of Consumer Credit Data

US stock futures rose in early pre-market trade, ahead of consumer credit data. Data on consumer credit for July will be released at 3:00 p.m. ET. Futures for the Dow Jones Industrial Average surged 36 points to 14,945.00, while the Standard & Poor's 500 index futures rose 4.50 points to 1,658.00. Futures for the Nasdaq 100 index gained 15.50 points to 3,145.00.

European markets were lower today, with the Spanish Ibex Index dropping 0.51%, London's FTSE 100 index falling 0.13% and STOXX Europe 600 Index dropping 0.25%. German DAX 30 index fell 0.05% and French CAC 40 Index declined 0.58%. Asian markets ended higher today. China's Shanghai Composite rose 3.39%, while Japan's Nikkei Stock Average surged 2.48%. Australia's ASX/S&P500 gained 0.69% and Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index gained 0.57%. China's consumer price index increased 0.5% in August, while the producer price index declined 1.6% from August 2012. China's trade surplus widened to $28.6 billion in August, versus $17.8 billion in July. Japan's economy grew 3.8% on an annualized basis in the second quarter, versus a preliminary reading of a 2.6% growth.

Analysts at Paradigm Capital upgraded Open Text

from “hold” to “buy.” The target price for Open Text has been raised from $75 to $84. Open Text's shares closed at $70.66 on Friday.