US Stock Futures Flat Ahead Of Economic Data

US stock futures traded mostly flat in early pre-market trade, ahead of jobless claims data. Data on retail sales and import prices for August will be released at 8:30 a.m. ET. The Reuters/University of Michigan's consumer sentiment index for September will be released at 9:55 a.m. ET, while business inventories data for July will be released at 10:00 a.m. ET. Futures for the Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 2 points to 16,962.00, while the Standard & Poor's 500 index futures fell 0.10 points to 1,988.90. Futures for the Nasdaq 100 index dropped 0.75 points to 4,082.75.

European markets were mixed today, with the Spanish Ibex Index rising 0.28%, STOXX Europe 600 Index gaining 0.17%. German DAX 30 index fell 0.19%, French CAC 40 Index fell 0.01% and London's FTSE 100 Index gained 0.27%. Euro-zone industrial production rose 1% in July. In Asian markets, Japan's Nikkei Stock Average gained 0.25%, Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index dipped 0.27%, China's Shanghai Composite Index rose 0.88% and India's BSE Sensex gained 0.24%.

Analysts at Barclays upgraded Netflix

from Underperform to Equal-weight. The target price for Netflix has been raised from $420 to $480. Netflix's shares closed at $481.56 yesterday.