Courtesy of Benzinga.
Pre-open movers
US stock futures traded mostly higher in early pre-market trade, ahead of earnings from McDonald’s Corp. (NYSE: MCD). The Markit PMI manufacturing index for January will be released at 9:45 a.m. ET, while existing home sales data for December and the Conference Board’s index of leading indicators for December will be released at 10:00 a.m. ET. Futures for the Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 18 points to 17,755.00, while the Standard & Poor’s 500 index futures rose 0.90 points to 2,057.30. Futures for the Nasdaq 100 index declined 0.25 points to 4,264.50.
A Peek Into Global Markets
European markets were higher today, with the Spanish Ibex Index rising 1.01%, STOXX Europe 600 Index gaining 1.47% and German DAX 30 index rising 1.43%. French CAC 40 Index surged 1.61% and London’s FTSE 100 Index rose 0.23%.
In Asian markets, Japan’s Nikkei Stock Average rose 1.05%, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index climbed 1.34%, China’s Shanghai Composite Index jumped 0.25% and India’s Sensex jumped 0.94%. The HSBC China Manufacturing PMI climbed to 49.8 in January, compared to a final reading of 49.6 in December.
Broker Recommendation
Analysts at Credit Suisse downgraded Precision Castparts Corp. (NYSE: PCP) from Outperform to Neutral. The price target for Precision Castparts has been lowered from $289 to $223.
Precision Castparts’ shares rose 0.08% to close at $208.91 yesterday.
Breaking news
- Starbucks Corporation (NASDAQ: SBUX) reported financial results Thursday for fiscal first quarter ended December 28, 2014. Consolidated net revenues increased 13 percent to $4.8 billion, inline with analyst estimates. Non-GAAP EPS of $0.80 per share was inline with estimates and grew 16 percent over Q1 FY14 non-GAAP EPS. To read the full news, click here.
- Box (NYSE: BOX) announced the pricing of its initial public offering of 12,500,000 shares of its Class A common stock at a price to the public of $14.00 per share. To read the full news, click here.
- The Michaels Companies, Inc. (NASDAQ: MIK) announced Thursday, the pricing of an underwritten public offering by certain of its stockholders of 18,800,000 shares of its common stock at a price of $23.52 per share. To read the full news, click here.
- Berkshire Partners LLC, a Boston-based investment firm, together with other investors including New Balance Holding, Inc., a global athletic leader, today announced that they have signed an agreement to purchase The Rockport Company from the adidas Group. To read the full news, click here.
Posted-In: Credit Suisse US Stock FuturesNews Eurozone Futures Global Pre-Market Outlook Markets
