US Stock Futures Surge Ahead Of Citigroup, Goldman Sachs Earnings

US stock futures traded higher in early pre-market trade, ahead of earnings from

and

. Data on weekly jobless claims will be released at 8:30 a.m. ET, while the NAHB housing market index will be released at 10:00 a.m. ET. Futures for the Dow Jones Industrial Average surged 59.5 points to 18,051.5, while the Standard & Poor's 500 index futures rose 7.40 points to 2,111.65. Futures for the Nasdaq 100 index gained 18.90 points to 4,555.40.

European markets were mostly higher today, with the Spanish Ibex Index rising 1.38 percent, STOXX Europe 600 Index surging 1.31 percent and German DAX 30 index gaining 1.53 percent. French CAC 40 Index jumped 1.42 percent and London's FTSE 100 Index rose 0.39 percent. In Asian markets, Japan's Nikkei Stock Average rose 0.67 percent, Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index gained 0.43 percent, China's Shanghai Composite Index rose 0.46 percent and India's BSE Sensex jumped 0.88 percent.

Analysts at BMO Capital upgraded

from Market Perform to Outperform and raised the price target from $570.00 to $670.00. Google shares gained 1.03 percent to $590.00 in pre-market trading.