US Stock Futures Flat; Fed Minutes In Focus

US stock futures traded mostly flat in early pre-market trade. Data on housing starts for October will be released at 8:30 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 dropped 5 points to 17,647.00, while the Standard & Poor's 500 index futures fell 1 point to 2,047.60. Futures for the Nasdaq 100 index gained 1.50 points to 4,239.50.

European markets were mostly higher today, with the Spanish Ibex Index falling 0.01%, STOXX Europe 600 Index gaining 0.20%. German DAX 30 index jumped 0.38%, French CAC 40 Index climbed 0.26% and London's FTSE 100 Index dropped 0.12%. In Asian markets, Japan's Nikkei Stock Average fell 0.32%, Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index fell 0.66%, China's Shanghai Composite Index fell 0.22% and India's Sensex slipped 0.46%.

Analysts at Bank of America upgraded PetSmart

from Underperform to Neutral and raised the price target from $55.00 to $80.00. PetSmart shares rose 0.01% to close at $73.62 yesterday.