US Stock Futures Up Ahead Of Bank of America Earnings - Comcast (NASDAQ:CMCSA), Bank of America (NYSE:BAC)

Pre-open movers

US stock futures rose in early pre-market trade, ahead of earnings from Bank of America

BAC

. The producer price index for December and the Empire State manufacturing index for January will be released at 8:30 a.m. ET. The Federal Open Market Committee will release its latest Beige Book report at 2:00 p.m. ET. Futures for the Dow Jones Industrial Average surged 36 points to 16,335.00, while the Standard & Poor's 500 index futures gained 3.50 points to 1,836.40. Futures for the Nasdaq 100 index rose 12.50 points to 3,586.25.

A Peek Into Global Markets

European markets were higher today, with the Spanish Ibex Index rising 0.32%, London's FTSE 100 index surging 0.33% and STOXX Europe 600 Index gaining 0.56%. German DAX 30 index jumped 1.02% and French CAC 40 Index climbed 0.59%. Germany's GDP rose 0.4% in 2013, versus a 0.7% growth in the earlier year. Euro-zone trade surplus widened to 17.1 billion euros ($23.41 billion) in November, from 12.5 billion euros in the year-ago period. Asian markets ended higher today. Japan's Nikkei Stock Average surged 2.50%, China's Shanghai Composite gained 0.17%, Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index rose 0.49% and India's BSE Sensex jumped 1.22%.

Broker Recommendation

Analysts at Credit Suisse upgraded Dick's Sporting Goods

DKS

from “neutral” to “outperform.” The target price for Dick's Sporting has been raised from $56 to $65. Dick's shares closed at $55.25 yesterday.

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