A Peek Into The Market Before The Trading Starts - American Electric Power (NASDAQ:AEP), Salesforce (NYSE:CRM)

Pre-open movers

US stock futures are lower this morning. Futures for the Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped 43 points to 12,069.00 and S&P 500 index futures fell 7.50 points to 1,254.10. Nasdaq 100 futures declined 9.50 points to 2,340.75.

A Peek Into Global Markets

European markets were lower today. The STOXX Europe 600 Index declined 1.16%, London's FTSE 100 Index moved down 0.73%, French CAC 40 index fell 1.53% and German DAX 30 index dropped 1.24%. Asian markets ended mostly higher, with Japan's Nikkei Stock Average rising 1.0480%, Australia's S&P/ASX 200 moving up 0.24% and China's Shanghai Composite rising 1.92%. Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index gained 1.9387% and India's Sensex dropped 0.43%.

Broker Recommendation

Analysts at Citigroup upgraded Salesforce.com Inc

CRM

from “neutral” to “buy.” The target price for Salesforce.com has been raised from $122 to $158. Salesforce.com shares gained 1.61% to close at $129.87 on Friday.

Breaking news

Lowe's Cos LOW reported a decline in its Q3 net profit. To read the full news, click here.
Kenexa KNXA, today announced the acquisition of Batrus Hollweg. To read the full news, click here.
Robert P. Powers has been elected executive vice president and chief operating officer of American Electric Power AEP. To read the full news, click here.
China GrenTech Corporation Limited GRRF today announced that its Board of Directors has received a proposal letter dated November 12, 2011 from its Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Mr. Yingjie Gao, to acquire all of the outstanding shares of GrenTech not currently owned by Mr. Gao, certain members of the management and their affiliates in a going private transaction for $3.10 per American Depositary share each ADS representing 25 ordinary shares of the Company) in cash, subject to certain conditions. To read the full news, click here.

Market News and Data brought to you by Benzinga APIs