US Stock Futures Signal Flat Start On Wall Street

Pre-open moversUS stock futures were mostly flat in early pre-market trade. The EIA will release weekly report on natural gas stocks at 10:30 a.m. ET, while petroleum inventories report will be released at 11:00 a.m. ET. Futures for the Dow Jones Industrial Average were flat at 16,422.00, while the Standard & Poor's 500 index futures dropped 1 point to 1,835.40. Futures for the Nasdaq 100 index fell 1.50 points to 3,580.25.A Peek Into Global Markets European markets were higher today, with the Spanish Ibex Index rising 0.30%, London's FTSE 100 index gaining 0.62% and STOXX Europe 600 Index surging 0.67%. German DAX 30 index climbed 0.76% and French CAC 40 Index gained 1.05%. French producer prices climbed 0.5% in November versus the prior month.Asian markets ended higher today. Japan's Nikkei Stock Average rose 0.03%, China's Shanghai Composite surged 1.36%, Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index gained 0.27% and India's BSE Sensex rose 0.87%. Japanese retail sales climbed 4% y/y in November, while the core consumer price index surged 1.2% y/y in the month. The country's industrial output rose 0.1% in November.Broker RecommendationAnalysts at Macquarie downgraded Twitter (NYSE: TWTR) from “neutral” to “underperform.” Twitter's shares fell 0.15% to $73.20 in pre-market trading. Breaking news

• LDK Solar (NYSE: LDK) announces that it executed confidentiality agreements in December 2013 with certain unaffiliated holders of the Renminbi-denominated US$-settled 10% Senior Notes due 2014 issued by LDK Solar, to facilitate discussions with the Holders concerning LDK Solar's potential restructuring of its offshore liabilities. To read the full news, click here.
• Perfect World (NASDAQ: PWRD) today announced that it has entered into a definitive agreement to sell Beijing Huanxiang Zongheng Chinese Literature Website Co., Ltd., the entity that operates Perfect World's Chinese online reading business, to Beijing Baidu Netcom Science Technology Co., Ltd. (NASDSQ: BIDU) for a total consideration of approximately RMB191.5 million, for the acquisition of PW Literature's equity and the repayment of PW Literature's loan from Perfect World. To read the full news, click here.
• Shire plc (NASDAQ: SHPG) announces that it has extended the expiration of its previously announced tender offer by a wholly owned subsidiary of Shire for all of the outstanding common shares of ViroPharma (NASDAQ: VPHM) until midnight, New York City time, on Thursday, January 9, 2014 (one minute after 11:59 p.m., New York City time, on January 9, 2014). To read the full news, click here.
• JinkoSolar (NYSE: JKS) today announced that four of its solar PV projects totaling 80MW in Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region have been successfully connected to the national grid. As of the end of the fourth quarter of 2013, the Company has connected approximately 213MW worth of solar PV projects to the grid. To read the full news, click here.