US Stock Futures Mixed; Beige Book In Focus

US stock futures were mixed in early pre-market trade. Data on international trade for July will be released at 8:30 a.m. ET, while the Federal Reserve will release its latest Beige Book report at 2:00 p.m. ET. Futures for the Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped 9 points to 14,818.00, while the Standard & Poor's 500 index futures fell 0.10 points to 1,639.00. Futures for the Nasdaq 100 index gained 4.25 points to 3,090.75.

European markets were lower today, with the Spanish Ibex Index dropping 0.63%, London's FTSE 100 index falling 0.53% and STOXX Europe 600 Index declining 0.42%. German DAX 30 index fell 0.59% and French CAC 40 Index declined 0.79%. UK services PMI surged to 60.5 in August, from 60.2 in July. Euro-zone retail sales rose by 0.1% in July from June. Asian markets ended mostly higher today. China's Shanghai Composite rose 0.21%, while Japan's Nikkei Stock Average surged 0.54%. Australia's ASX/S&P500 dropped 0.62%, Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index fell 0.31% and India's Sensex jumped 1.83%.

Analysts at Pivotal Research upgraded Omnicom Group

from “hold” to “buy.” The target price for Omnicom Group has been raised from $66 to $72. Omnicom Group's shares closed at $60.66 yesterday.