US Stock Futures Edge Lower Ahead Of New Home Sales, Dallas Fed Manufacturing Data

Pre-open movers US stock futures traded broadly flat to lower in early pre-market trade. Data on new home sales for September will be released at 10:00 a.m. ET, while the Dallas Fed manufacturing index for October will be released at 10:30 a.m. ET. Futures for the Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 25 points to 17,521, while the Standard & Poor's 500 index futures fell 3.75 points to 2,062.5. Futures for the Nasdaq 100 index fell 9 points to 4,602.75. A Peek Into Global Markets European markets were lower today, with the Financial Times Stock Exchange 100 Index down 0.27 percent and French CAC 40 Index down 0.67 percent. German DAX 30 index climbed 0.14 percent. In Asian markets, Japan's Nikkei Stock Average rose 0.67 percent, Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index was down 0.15 percent and China's Shanghai Composite Index was up 0.50 percent. Broker Recommendation Analysts at Citi downgraded Applied Materials, Inc AMAT from Buy to Neutral and reduced the price target from $23 to $18. Applied Materials shares rose 1.42 percent to close at $16.44 on Friday. Breaking news

• Manchester United MANU named Cliff Baty as its new CFO. To read the full news, click here.
• The Estée Lauder Companies Inc. EL inked an agreement to purchase an interest in South Korea-based Have & Be Co. Ltd. To read the full news, click here.
• Willis Group Holdings WSH announced the appointment of Mary O'Connor as the CEO of Financial Lines for Willis GB. To read the full news, click here.
• Western Refining, Inc. WNR today announced that it has submitted a proposal to the Conflicts Committee of the Board of Directors of the general partner of Northern Tier Energy LP NTI to acquire all of the latter's outstanding publicly-held common units. The proposed purchase price for each NTI common unit is comprised of $17.50 in cash and 0.2266 of a share of Western common stock. To read the full news, click here.