US Stock Futures Signal Flat Start On Wall Street - Becton Dickinson (NYSE:BDX), Basf (OTC:BASFY)

Pre-open movers

US stock futures traded mostly flat in early pre-market trade. The Atlanta Fed's Business Inflation Expectations for September will be released at 10:00 a.m. ET. Futures for the Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped 1 point to 15,572.00, while the Standard & Poor's 500 index futures fell 0.30 points to 1,717.10. Futures for the Nasdaq 100 index gained 3 points to 3,235.25.

A Peek Into Global Markets

European markets were mostly lower today, with the Spanish Ibex Index falling 0.24%, London's FTSE 100 index dropping 0.06% and STOXX Europe 600 Index declining 0.04%. German DAX 30 index gained 0.08% and French CAC 40 Index rose 0.04%. Asian markets ended lower today. Japan's Nikkei Stock Average fell 0.16%, Australia's ASX/S&P500 dropped 0.34% and India's Sensex tumbled 1.85%. The Reserve Bank of India lifted its key rate by a quarter-percentage point to 7.5%.

Broker Recommendation

Analysts at Canaccord Genuity upgraded Urban Outfitters

URBN

from “hold” to “buy.” The target price for Urban Outfitters is set to $48. Urban Outfitters' shares closed at $38.12 yesterday.

Breaking news

Verenium VRNM today announced it has entered into a definitive merger agreement with BASF Corporation BASFY, a leading chemicals company, under which BASF will commence a cash tender offer for all of the outstanding shares of Verenium's common stock. To read the full news, click here.
Regional Management RM announced Thursday that Palladium Equity Partners III, L.P. and Parallel 2005 Equity Fund, LP, both existing stockholders of the Company and affiliates of Palladium Equity Partners and Parallel Investment Partners, have increased the size of the previously announced underwritten public offering of 2,900,000 shares of the Company's common stock to 3,480,000 shares and priced the offering at $27.50 per share. To read the full news, click here.
Retractable Technologies RVP announced today that a Tyler, Texas jury returned a verdict in the litigation of Retractable Technologies, Inc. v. Becton, Dickinson and Company BDX in favor of Retractable. To read the full news, click here.
GlaxoSmithKline plc GSK and Theravance THRX today announced that the Japanese Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare (MHLW) has approved RELVAR™ ELLIPTA™ for the treatment of bronchial asthma (in cases where concurrent use of inhaled corticosteroid and long-acting inhaled beta2 agonist is required). To read the full news, click here.

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