A Peek Into The Markets: U.S. Stock Futures Slide Ahead Of Housing-Starts Data

U.S. stock futures traded lower in early pre-market trade. Data on housing starts for May will be released at 8:30 a.m. ET. Futures for the Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped 30 points to 17,614.00, while the Standard & Poor's 500 index futures fell 4.75 points to 2,065.50. Futures for the Nasdaq 100 index declined 6.50 points to 4,409.75. Oil prices traded higher as Brent crude futures gained 2.16 percent to trade at $48.21 per barrel, while US WTI crude futures also gained 1.54 percent to trade at $46.95 a barrel.

European markets were higher today, with the Spanish Ibex Index rising 1.59 percent, STOXX Europe 600 Index surging 1.19 percent and German DAX 30 index gaining 0.72 percent. The UK's FTSE index was trading higher by 1.22 percent, while French CAC 40 Index rose 0.93 percent. Eurozone current account surplus increased to 36.2 billion euros ($40.75 billion) in April, from EUR26.3 billion in March. In Asian markets, Japan's Nikkei Stock Average rose 1.07 percent, Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index gained 0.66 percent, China's Shanghai Composite Index gained 0.43 percent and India's BSE Sensex rose 0.38 percent.

Analysts at Cowen & Company upgraded

from Market Perform to Outperform, while lowering the price target from $29.00 to $28.00. Smith & Wesson shares rose 11.77 percent to $24.31 in pre-market trading.