US Stock Futures Down; New-Home Sales Data In Focus - Baidu (NASDAQ:BIDU)

Pre-open movers

US stock futures traded lower in early pre-market trade, ahead of new-home sales data. Data on new home sales for July will be released at 10:00 a.m. ET. Futures for the Dow Jones Industrial Average tumbled 19 points to 14,920.00, while the Standard & Poor's 500 index futures fell 1.60 points to 1,653.20. Futures for the Nasdaq 100 index dropped 1 point to 3,100.75.

A Peek Into Global Markets

European markets were mixed today, with the Spanish Ibex Index dropping 0.10%, London's FTSE 100 index gaining 0.20% and STOXX Europe 600 Index rising 0.03%. German DAX 30 index rose 0.01% and French CAC 40 Index declined 0.43%. German revised GDP climbed 0.7% in the second quarter. Asian markets ended mostly higher today. China's Shanghai Composite fell 0.47%, while Japan's Nikkei Stock Average gained 2.21%. Australia's ASX/S&P500 surged 0.96%, Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index fell 0.15% and India's Sensex jumped 1.13%.

Broker Recommendation

Analysts at Bank of America downgraded Aeropostale

ARO

from “buy” to “underperform.” The price target for Aeropostale has been lowered from $18 to $9. Aeropostale's shares closed at $10.98 yesterday.

Breaking news

Independent Bank IBCP announced the pricing of an underwritten public offering of 11,500,000 shares of its common stock at a price of $7.75 per share. To read the full news, click here.
Baidu BIDU and Renren RENN jointly announced today that Baidu Holdings Limited, a subsidiary of Baidu, and Renren have entered into a definitive agreement, pursuant to which Baidu Holdings Limited will acquire a certain number of newly issued ordinary shares of Nuomi Holdings Inc., a wholly-owned subsidiary of Renren, representing approximately 59% of the equity interest in Nuomi, for a purchase price of US$160 million in cash. To read the full news, click here.
GigOptix GIG today announced that it has this afternoon learned from a press release issued by M/A-COM Technology Solutions that MACOM has filed a lawsuit in the United States District Court for the Northern District of California against GigOptix alleging that GigOptix' polymer technology is infringing on two patents in which MACOM claims rights. To read the full news, click here.
Hibbett Sports HIBB reported a 34% rise in its fiscal second-quarter earnings and cut its earnings forecast for the year. To read the full news, click here.

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