A Peek Into The Market Before The Trading Starts

US stock futures edged higher in early pre-market trade, ahead of nonfarm payrolls data. US jobs data for July will be released at 8:30 a.m. ET. Futures for the Dow Jones Industrial Average surged 19 points to 15,569.00, while the Standard & Poor's 500 index futures rose 2.10 points to 1,702.30. Futures for the Nasdaq 100 index gained 7.75 points to 3,120.50.

European markets were slightly higher today, with the Spanish Ibex Index rising 0.08%, London's FTSE 100 index dropping 0.08% and STOXX Europe 600 Index surging 0.28%. German DAX 30 index gained 0.09% and French CAC 40 Index rose 0.17%. British construction PMI surged to 57.0 in July, versus 51.0 in June. UK house prices increased 0.8% in July versus June and rose 3.9% y/y, Nationwide Building Society reported. Asian markets ended mostly higher. Japan revised their fiscal2013/2014 GDP view up to 2.8% from 2.5%. However, the country's private consumption is projected to grow 0.5% in fiscal 2014/15, down from 2.1%. China's Shanghai Composite surged 0.02%, while Japan's Nikkei Stock Average jumped 3.29%. Australia's ASX/S&P500 gained 1.02%, India's Sensex tumbled 0.79% and Hong Kong's Heng Seng Index rose 0.46%.

Analysts at BMO Capital upgraded Barrick Gold

from “underperform” to “market perform.” The target price for Barrick Gold has been raised from $17 to $18. Barrick Gold's shares closed at $16.81 yesterday.