US Stock Futures Signal Lower Start On Wall Street

US stock futures dropped in early pre-market trade. Data on motor vehicle sales will be released today. Futures for the Dow Jones Industrial Average tumbled 62 points to 15,936.00, while the Standard & Poor's 500 index futures fell 5.80 points to 1,793.90. Futures for the Nasdaq 100 index declined 6 points to 3,477.00.

European markets were lower today, with the Spanish Ibex Index falling 0.84%, London's FTSE 100 index dropping 0.77% and STOXX Europe 600 Index declining 0.86%. German DAX 30 index tumbled 1.01% and French CAC 40 Index declined 1.72%. Spanish unemployment fell by 2,475 in November versus October. Euro-zone producer prices declined 0.5% in October from September. UK construction PMI surged to 62.6 in November, from 59.4 in October. Asian markets ended mixed today. Japan's Nikkei Stock Average surged 0.60%, China's Shanghai Composite gained 0.69%, Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index declined 0.53% and India's BSE Sensex dropped 0.21%. Australia's current account deficit widened to 12.7 billion Australian dollars (US$11.6 billion) in the third quarter versus the second quarter. Australia also held its interest rate at 2.5%.

Analysts at Bank of America upgraded HollyFrontier

from “neutral” to “buy.” The target price for HollyFrontier has been raised from $51 to $60. HollyFrontier's shares closed at $49.17 yesterday.