US Stock Futures Up Ahead Of Retail Sales Report

Pre-open movers US stock futures traded higher in early pre-market trade. The NFIB Small Business Optimism Index for April will be released at 7:30 a.m. ET. Data on retail sales, and import and export prices for April will be released at 8:30 a.m. ET. Data on business inventories for March will be released at 10:00 a.m. ET. Futures for the Dow Jones Industrial Average surged 26 points to 16,681.00, while the Standard & Poor's 500 index futures rose 2.40 points to 1,895.20. Futures for the Nasdaq 100 index gained 6.25 points to 3,614.00. A Peek Into Global Markets European markets were higher today, with the Spanish Ibex Index rising 0.11%, STOXX Europe 600 Index gaining 0.19%. German DAX 30 index surged 0.60%, French CAC 40 Index climbed 0.20% and London's FTSE 100 Index gained 0.13%. In Asian markets, Japan's Nikkei Stock Average jumped 1.95%, Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index rose 0.41%, China's Shanghai Composite Index fell 0.10% and India's BSE Sensex jumped 1.36%. Broker Recommendation Analysts at Bernstein upgraded Time Warner TWX from “market perform” to “outperform.” The target price for Time Warner has been raised from $73 to $84. Time Warner's shares closed at $69.44 yesterday. Breaking news

• Inovio Pharmaceuticals INO announced today it acquired worldwide rights (excluding China) for early preclinical therapies addressing Alzheimer's disease and multiple sclerosis based on the academic research of Dr. Bin Wang, a professor at Fudan University's Shanghai Medical College. To read the full news, click here.
• Merck MRK announced today that it signed an agreement for Santen Pharmaceutical Co (Santen) to purchase Merck's ophthalmology products in Japan and key markets in Europe and Asia Pacific. To read the full news, click here.
• Today at the joint meeting of the International Society of Magnetic Resonance in Medicine (ISMRM) and the European Society of Magnetic Resonance in Medicine and Biology (ESMRMB), GE Healthcare, a leading provider of MRI systems, and CorTechs Labs, a leading medical software innovator providing solutions for quantitative brain volume analysis, are pleased to announce the signing of a strategic joint-marketing agreement. To read the full news, click here.
• The Ensign Group,ENSG announced today that its board of directors has approved the separation of its healthcare business and its real estate business into two separate and independent publicly traded companies. To read the full news, click here.