US Stock Futures Up Ahead Of Economic Data

US stock futures rose in early pre-market trade, ahead of economic data. Data on personal income and consumer spending for July will be released at 8:30 a.m. ET. The Chicago PMI for August will be released at 9:45 a.m. ET, while the Reuter's/University of Michigan's consumer sentiment index will be released at 9:55 a.m. ET. Futures for the Dow Jones Industrial Average surged 26 points to 14,860.00, while the Standard & Poor's 500 index futures rose 4 points to 1,640.70. Futures for the Nasdaq 100 index gained 8.50 points to 3,098.00.

European markets were lower today, with the Spanish Ibex Index dropping 0.60%, London's FTSE 100 index falling 0.43% and STOXX Europe 600 Index declining 0.41%. German DAX 30 index fell 0.47% and French CAC 40 Index declined 0.46%. Italy's unemployment rate declined to 12.0% in July, from 12.1% in June. German retail sales fell 1.4% on the month in July. Asian markets ended mostly higher today. Japan's core consumer price index increased 0.7% y/y in July, while the country's unemployment rate declined to 3.8% versus 3.9% in June. Japan's industrial production surged 3.2% in July. China's Shanghai Composite rose 0.06%, while Japan's Nikkei Stock Average dropped 0.53%. Australia's ASX/S&P500 gained 0.83%, Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index surged 0.12% and India's Sensex jumped 1.19%.

Analysts at KeyBanc upgraded Select Comfort

from “hold” to “buy.” The target price for Select Comfort is set to $30. Select Comfort's shares closed at $23.98 yesterday.