A Peek Into The Market Before The Trading Starts

Pre-open moversUS stock futures are lower this morning. Futures for the Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped 32 points to 13,087.00 and S&P 500 index futures fell 3.90 points to 1,393.10. Nasdaq 100 futures declined 3.25 points to 2,706.75. A Peek Into Global Markets European markets were lower today. The STOXX Europe 600 Index declined 0.38%, French CAC 40 index fell 0.70%. London's FTSE 100 Index moved down 0.60% and German DAX 30 index dropped 0.51%.Asian markets ended mostly higher, with Japan's Nikkei Stock Average surging 0.88%, China's Shanghai Composite rising 0.16% and Australia's S&P/ASX 200 moving up 0.50%. Hong Kong's Hang Seng index dropped 0.04%.Broker RecommendationBank of America upgraded CTC Media (NASDAQ: CTCM) from “neutral” to “buy.” The target price for CTC Media has been lowered from $12 to $11.CTC Media shares jumped 11.23% to close at $8.52 yesterday. Breaking news

• Rainmaker Systems (NASDAQ: RMKR) today announced it has signed a new two-year agreement with a total value of more than $2 million over the full term with an existing major global software client for B2B sales. To read the full news, click here.
• Hornbeck Offshore Services (NYSE: HOS) announced the pricing of its private offering of $260,000,000 aggregate principal amount of convertible senior notes due 2019. To read the full news, click here.
• ImmunoCellular Therapeutics (AMEX: IMUC) announced Wednesday that clinical data from its Phase I trial of ICT-107 was accepted for publication, and is currently in the online edition of the prestigious medical journal Cancer Immunology, Immunotherapy. To read the full news, click here.
• Lamar Advertising Co (NASDAQ: LAMR) posted upbeat second-quarter revenue, but issued downbeat forecast for the third quarter. To read the full news, click here.