US Stock Futures Gain; All Eyes On Jobs Report

US stock futures gained in early pre-market trade, ahead of jobs data. Data on nonfarm payroll employment for December will be released at 8:30 a.m. ET, while wholesale trade data for November will be released at 10:00 a.m. ET. Futures for the Dow Jones Industrial Average jumped 50 points to 16,441.00, while the Standard & Poor's 500 index futures gained 6 points to 1,839.00. Futures for the Nasdaq 100 index rose 17.50 points to 3,565.25.

European markets were higher today, with the Spanish Ibex Index surging 0.64%, London's FTSE 100 index gaining 0.88% and STOXX Europe 600 Index climbing 0.66%. German DAX 30 index rose 0.81% and French CAC 40 Index surged 0.73%. UK retail sales rose 0.4% in December. French industrial production climbed 1.3% in November versus the prior month. Asian markets ended mostly higher today. Japan's Nikkei Stock Average gained 0.20%, China's Shanghai Composite fell 0.71%, Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index climbed 0.26% and India's BSE Sensex rose 0.22%. Indian exports climbed 3.49% y/y to $26.35 billion in December, versus a 5.86% growth in November. China's exports increased 4.3% y/y in December, versus a 12.7% rise in November.

Analysts at Bank of America upgraded TrueBlue

from “neutral” to “buy.” The target price for TrueBlue has been raised from $28 to $31. TrueBlue's shares closed at $26.29 yesterday.