US Stock Futures Flat; All Eyes On Fed Minutes

Pre-open movers

US stock futures traded mostly flat in early pre-market trade. Data on housing starts for April will be released at 8:30 a.m. ET. Futures for the Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 3.50 points to 18,287.50, while the Standard & Poor's 500 index futures slipped 0.05 points to 2,124.45. Futures for the Nasdaq 100 index rose 2.65 points to 4,503.90.

A Peek Into Global Markets

European markets were mixed today, with the Spanish Ibex Index rising 0.06 percent, STOXX Europe 600 Index gaining 0.10 percent and German DAX 30 index dropping 0.25 percent. French CAC 40 Index slipped 0.20 percent and London's FTSE 100 Index rose 0.15 percent. In Asian markets, Japan's Nikkei Stock Average rose 0.85 percent, China's Shanghai Composite Index climbed 0.65 percent, Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index dropped 0.39 percent and India's BSE Sensex gained 0.69 percent.

Broker Recommendation

Analysts at Morgan Stanley upgraded Computer Sciences Corporation

CSC

from Underweight to Equalweight and raised the price target from $63.00 to $73.00. Computer Sciences shares climbed 6.24 percent to $71.88 in after-hours trading.

Breaking news

Shares of Lowe's Companies, Inc. LOW tumbled more than 6 percent in pre-market trading after the company reported downbeat results for its first quarter. To read the full news, click here.
Hormel Foods Corp HRL reported stronger-than-expected earnings for the fiscal second quarter, but the company's revenue missed analysts' estimates. To read the full news, click here.
Discovery Laboratories, Inc. DSCO today reported that the first patient has been enrolled in the next phase of its phase 2a clinical evaluation of AEROSURF®, which is designed to evaluate the safety and tolerability of higher and repeat doses of aerosolized KL4 surfactant administered to premature infants 29 to 34 weeks gestational age (GA) who are receiving nasal continuous positive airway pressure (nCPAP) for respiratory distress syndrome (RDS), compared to infants receiving nCPAP alone. To read the full news, click here.
Staples, Inc. SPLS reported in-line earnings for the first quarter, but the company's sales missed analysts' expectations. To read the full news, click here.

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