US Stock Futures Up; All Eyes On Jobs Report

US stock futures traded higher in early pre-market trade, ahead of jobs data. Data on nonfarm payroll employment for May will be released at 8:30 a.m. ET, while consumer credit data for April will be released at 3:00 p.m. ET. Futures for the Dow Jones Industrial Average surged 30 points to 16,848.00, while the Standard & Poor's 500 index futures rose 2 points to 1,940.50. Futures for the Nasdaq 100 index gained 5.50 points to 3,781.75.

European markets were higher today, with the Spanish Ibex Index rising 1.14%, STOXX Europe 600 Index gaining 0.39%. German DAX 30 index rose 0.29%, French CAC 40 Index jumped 0.35% and London's FTSE 100 Index gained 0.35%. French budget deficit narrowed to EUR64.2 billion in the January to April period, versus EUR66.8 billion in the first four months of 2013. Germany's central bank raised its 2014 growth outlook for the economy to 1.9%, versus a prior forecast of 1.7% in December. German exports rose 3.0% on the month in April, while imports increased 0.1%. In Asian markets, Japan's Nikkei Stock Average rose 2.17%, Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index fell 0.69%, China's Shanghai Composite Index declined 0.54% and India's BSE Sensex jumped 1.51%.

Analysts at Stifel Nicolaus upgraded Humana

from “hold” to “buy.” The target price for Humana is set to $155. Humana's shares closed at $124.35 yesterday.