US Stock Futures Signal Higher Start On Wall Street

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 Markit PMI services index for December will be released at 9:45 a.m. ET. The general conditions index of the Philadelphia Fed's Survey for December and the Conference Board's index of leading indicators for November will be released at 10:00 a.m. ET. Futures for the Dow Jones Industrial Average jumped 181 points to 17,473.00, while the Standard & Poor's 500 index futures rose 22.20 points to 2,030.40. Futures for the Nasdaq 100 index climbed 53.25 points to 4,212.75.

European markets were higher today, with the Spanish Ibex Index gaining 2.69%, STOXX Europe 600 Index rising 2.07%. German DAX 30 index climbed 2.08%, French CAC 40 Index gained 2.57% and London's FTSE 100 Index rose 0.98%. In Asian markets, Japan's Nikkei Stock Average rose 2.32%, Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index climbed 1.09%, China's Shanghai Composite Index fell 0.11% and India's Sensex jumped 1.56%.

Analysts at Longbow Research upgraded

from Underperform to Neutral. The price target for Joy Global is set to $50. Joy Global's shares closed at $46.14 yesterday.