US Stock Futures Up; All Eyes On Fed Minutes

Pre-open movers

US stock futures rose in early pre-market trading. Data on wholesale trade for February will be released at 10:00 a.m. ET, while the Federal Open Market Committee will issue minutes of its latest meeting at 2:00 p.m. ET. Futures for the Dow Jones Industrial Average surged 44 points to 16,224.00, while the Standard & Poor's 500 index futures rose 1.40 points to 1,846.40. Futures for the Nasdaq 100 index gained 6.25 points to 3,534.75.

A Peek Into Global Markets

European markets were higher today, with the Spanish Ibex Index rising 0.45%, London's FTSE 100 index gaining 0.75% and STOXX Europe 600 Index surging 0.50%. German DAX 30 index climbed 0.28% and French CAC 40 Index rose 0.47%. Asian markets ended mostly higher today. Japan's Nikkei Stock Average fell 2.10%, Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index gained 1.09%, China's Shanghai Composite surged 0.33% and India's BSE Index jumped 0.49%.

Broker Recommendation

Analysts at Bank of America downgraded The NASDAQ OMX Group

NDAQ

from “buy” to “neutral.” The target price for NASDAQ OMX Group has been lowered from $43 to $39. NASDAQ's shares closed at $34.81 yesterday.

Breaking news

News Corp NWSA announced today the acquisition of a luxury shopping website in the United Kingdom that two of its leading publications will help to promote in a new digital venture. To read the full news, click here.
iKang Healthcare Group KANG today announced the pricing of its initial public offering of 10,904,846 American Depositary Shares at an offering price of $14 per ADS. To read the full news, click here.
Forest Laboratories FRX and Almirall SA LBTSF today announced that they have recently received feedback from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) regarding the fixed dose combination of aclidinium and formoterol. To read the full news, click here.
Senomyx SNMX announced today that it has entered into a new collaborative agreement with PepsiCo PEP related to Senomyx's Salt Taste Program. To read the full news, click here.

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