US Stock Futures Signal Higher Start On Wall Street

Pre-open movers US stock futures traded higher in early pre-market trade. Chicago Federal Reserve Bank President Charles Evans is expected to speak today. Futures for the Dow Jones Industrial Average surged 33 points to 16,470.00, while the Standard & Poor's 500 index futures rose 5.60 points to 1,899.90. Futures for the Nasdaq 100 index gained 4.50 points to 3,857.50. A Peek Into Global Markets European markets were higher today, with the Spanish Ibex Index gaining 0.69%, STOXX Europe 600 Index rising 0.08%. German DAX 30 index climbed 0.37%, French CAC 40 Index rose 0.20% and London's FTSE 100 Index gained 0.08%. In Asian markets, Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index gained 0.24%, China's Shanghai Composite Index fell 0.36% and India's BSE Sensex surged 0.33%. China's exports surged 15.3% y/y in September, while imports gained 7%. India's industrial production climbed 0.4% y/y in August. Broker Recommendation Analysts at UBS downgraded J.C. Penney Company JCP from Neutral to Sell. The price target for J.C. Penney has been lowered from $10 to $5. J.C. Penney's shares fell 1.69% to $7.00 in pre-market trading. Breaking news

• Ford Motor Company F and Carfax have expanded their partnership in the Ford and Lincoln Certified Pre-Owned (CPO) programs. Ford is continuing its commitment to provide Carfax® Vehicle History Reports™ for free to buyers and sellers of Certified Ford and Lincoln vehicles. To read the full news, click here.
• Intra-Cellular Therapies ITCI today announced topline results from ITI-007-200, a Phase I/II clinical trial designed to evaluate the safety, tolerability and pharmacokinetics of low doses of its lead drug candidate, ITI-007 in healthy geriatric subjects (trial Part 1) and in patients with dementia, including Alzheimer's disease (trial Part 2). To read the full news, click here.
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• STERIS STE and Synergy Health, plc SYHEF today announced that STERIS is commencing a "recommended offer" under U.K. law to acquire Synergy in a cash and stock transaction valued at £19.50 ($31.35) per Synergy share, or a total of approximately $1.9 billion, based on STERIS's closing stock price of $56.38 per share on October 10, 2014. To read the full news, click here.