US Stock Futures Rise Ahead Of Jobless Claims, GDP Data

US stock futures gained in early pre-market trade, ahead of economic data. Data on weekly jobless claims and GDP growth for the fourth quarter will be released at 8:30 a.m. ET. The NAR's pending home sales index for December will be released at 10:00 a.m. ET. Futures for the Dow Jones Industrial Average surged 40 points to 15,738.00, while the Standard & Poor's 500 index futures rose 6.60 points to 1,777.80. Futures for the Nasdaq 100 index gained 16 points to 3,489.00.

European markets were mostly lower today, with the Spanish Ibex Index rising 0.05%, London's FTSE 100 index dropping 0.24% and STOXX Europe 600 Index declining 0.31%. German DAX 30 index fell 0.23% and French CAC 40 Index declined 0.20%. Spain's gross domestic product expanded 0.3% in the fourth quarter versus the third quarter. German unemployment fell by 28,000 to 2.927 million in January, while the country's jobless rate came in at 6.8%. Asian markets ended lower today. Japan's Nikkei Stock Average tumbled 2.45%, China's Shanghai Composite dropped 0.82%, Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index fell 0.48% and India's BSE Sensex slipped 0.72%. The final reading of the HSBC China Manufacturing PMI declined to 49.5 in January, versus a reading of 50.5 in December. New home sales in Australia dropped 0.4% in December versus November.

Analysts at Bank of America maintained Dow Chemical Company (The)

with a “neutral” rating and lifted the price target from $45.00 to $48.00. Dow Chemical's shares closed at $44.73 yesterday.