A Peek Into The Markets: U.S. Stock Futures Signal Higher Start On Wall Street

Pre-open movers

U.S. stock futures traded higher in early pre-market trade. Futures for the Dow Jones Industrial Average jumped 215 points to 17,766, while the Standard & Poor’s 500 index futures rose 28.10 points to 2,087.00. Futures for the Nasdaq 100 index surged 59 points to 4,418.50.

Oil prices traded higher as Brent crude futures gained 1.81 percent to trade at $50.06 per barrel, while US WTI crude futures also gained 1.65 percent to trade at $48.77 a barrel.

A Peek Into Global Markets

European markets were higher today, with the Spanish Ibex Index rising 3.07 percent, STOXX Europe 600 Index surging 3.68 percent and German DAX 30 index gaining 3.50 percent. The UK's FTSE index was trading higher by 3.27 percent, while French CAC 40 Index rose 3.48 percent.

In Asian markets, Japan’s Nikkei Stock Average rose 2.34 percent, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index gained 1.69 percent, China’s Shanghai Composite Index gained 0.13 percent and India’s BSE Sensex rose 0.91 percent.

Broker Recommendation

Analysts at Deutsche Bank upgraded Yelp Inc YELP from Hold to Buy, while raising the price target from $26.00 to $33.00.

Yelp shares rose 4.23 percent to $28.06 in pre-market trading.

Breaking news

• Marathon Oil Corporation MRO disclosed Monday that it reached a definitive purchase and sale agreement to buy PayRock Energy Holdings, LLC, a portfolio company of EnCap Investments, for $888 million. To read the full news, click here.
• Icahn Enterprises L.P. IEP revealed Monday that it was ready to pay $8.00 a share to acquire the remaining portion of the shares of Federal-Mogul Holdings Corp FDML. This is lower than the Friday's closing price of $8.15. To read the full news, click here.



• Monolithic Power Systems, Inc. MPWR reported a quarterly dividend of $0.20 per share, in line with the previous payout. The company said its Board approved the 2015 compensation of executive officers, it re-elected three directors, and ratified the appointment of independent auditors for the ongoing year.