US Stock Futures Signal Higher Start On Wall Street

US stock futures traded higher in early pre-market trade. The Conference Board's index of leading indicators for August will be released at 10:00 a.m. ET. Futures for the Dow Jones Industrial Average surged 70 points to 17,248.00, while the Standard & Poor's 500 index futures rose 6.50 points to 2,011.10. Futures for the Nasdaq 100 index climbed 15.25 points to 4,111.75.

European markets were higher today, with the Spanish Ibex Index rising 0.64%, STOXX Europe 600 Index gaining 0.59%. German DAX 30 index rose 0.64%, French CAC 40 Index surged 0.10% and London's FTSE 100 Index gained 0.65%. In Asian markets, Japan's Nikkei Stock Average jumped 1.58%, Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index rose 0.57%, China's Shanghai Composite Index gained 0.58% and India's BSE Sensex fell 0.08%. Japanese exports declined 1.3% in August, versus a 3.9% gain in July. However, imports fell 1.5% in the month.

Analysts at Deutsche Bank downgraded Oracle

from Buy to Hold. The target price for Oracle has been lowered from $48 to $42. Oracle's shares fell 2.91% to $40.34 in pre-market trading.