US Stock Futures Flat Ahead Of Earnings

US stock futures traded flat in early pre-market trade.

and

are scheduled to report their quarterly earnings today. The Producer Price Index for September and retail sales data for September will be released at 8:30 a.m. ET. Data on business inventories for August will be released at 10:00 a.m. ET. The Federal Open Market Committee will release its Beige Book report at 2:00 p.m. ET. Futures for the Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 4 points to 16,977.0, while the Standard & Poor's 500 index futures rose 0.50 points to 1,994.50. Futures for the Nasdaq 100 index slipped 4.25 points to 4,337.00.

European markets were lower today, with the Spanish Ibex Index declining 0.20 percent, STOXX Europe 600 Index dropping 0.29 percent and German DAX 30 index dropping 0.56 percent. French CAC 40 Index declined 0.33 percent and London's FTSE 100 Index fell 0.57 percent. In Asian markets, Japan's Nikkei Stock Average declined 1.89 percent, Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index fell 0.71 percent, China's Shanghai Composite Index declined 0.93 percent and India's BSE Sensex slipped 0.25 percent.

Analysts at JMP Securities downgraded

from Market Outperform to Market Perform. Twitter shares gained 1.08 percent to close at $29.06 yesterday.