US Stock Futures Up Ahead Of Jobless Claims

US stock futures traded higher in early pre-market trade. Data on weekly jobless claims will be released at 8:30 a.m. ET, while the U.S. Treasury monthly budget report for October will be released at 2:00 p.m. ET. Futures for the Dow Jones Industrial Average jumped 40 points to 17,617.00, while the Standard & Poor's 500 index futures rose 5.10 points to 2,041.00. Futures for the Nasdaq 100 index climbed 11.25 points to 4,207.25.

European markets were higher today, with the Spanish Ibex Index gaining 0.22%, STOXX Europe 600 Index rising 0.42%. German DAX 30 index jumped 0.85%, French CAC 40 Index surged 0.55% and London's FTSE 100 Index gained 0.39%. French current account deficit narrowed to EUR1.2 billion ($1.49 billion) in September, versus EUR3.7 billion in August. In Asian markets, Japan's Nikkei Stock Average jumped 1.14%, Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index rose 0.34%, China's Shanghai Composite Index fell 0.36% and India's Sensex fell 0.24%. Industrial output in China increased 7.7% y/y in October, while housing sales declined 9.9% for the first 10 months of the year. Chinese retail sales climbed 11.5% y/y in October.

Analysts at Goldman Sachs upgraded SanDisk

from Neutral to Buy. The price target for SanDisk has been raised from $87.00 to $106.00. SanDisk's shares fell 0.11% to $92.73 in after-hours trading.