US Stock Futures Up; RIM Shares Drop In Pre-Market

US stock futures are higher this morning. Futures on the Dow Jones Industrial Average jumped 48 points to 11,870.00 and futures on the S&P 500 stock index rose 6.70 points to 1,218.40. Nasdaq 100 futures surged 9.50 points to 2,232.75. US stocks closed higher on Thursday, with the Dow Jones industrial average gaining 0.38% to 11,868.81, the broader Standard & Poor's 500 index surging 0.32% to 1,215.75 and the NASDAQ composite index rising 0.07% to 2,541.01. The consumer-price index for November will be released at 8:30 a.m. ET. Shares of Research In Motion Limited RIMM dipped about 9% in pre-market trading after the company reported a sharp decline in its FQ3 earnings, and issued a downbeat view for the current period. Darden Restaurants Inc DRI is projected to report its FQ2 earnings at $0.42 per share on sales of $1.83 billion. Adobe Systems Incorporated ADBE reported a 35% decline in its Q4 earnings. Shares of Zynga Inc will begin trading on Friday. Zynga priced its initial public offering at $10 per share. Fitch Ratings cut the long-term issuer default ratings and viability ratings of Barclays PLC BCS, Bank of America Corp BAC, Credit Suisse AG CS, Deutsche Bank AG DB, BNP Paribas BNPQY and Goldman Sachs Group Inc GS. Fitch also lowered the viability ratings of Morgan Stanley MS and Societe Generale SCGLF. Asian markets ended mostly higher, with Japan's Nikkei Stock Average surging 0.2446%, Australia's S&P/ASX 200 moving up 0.50% and China's Shanghai Composite gaining 2.02%. Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index rose 1.4343% and India's Sensex dipped 2.18%. European markets were mostly higher today. The STOXX Europe 600 Index has gained 0.13%, London's FTSE 100 Index moved up 0.49%, German DAX 30 index rose 0.07% and France CAC 40 index dropped 0.25%.