A Peek Into The Market Before The Trading Starts

Pre-open movers US stock futures are lower this morning as investors are awaiting economic data on weekly jobless claims and home sales. Futures on the Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped 29 points to 11,757, while S&P 500 futures declined 3.2 points to 1,275. Nasdaq 100 futures lost 4 points to 2,291. A Peek Into Global Markets Negative sentiment ruled the European markets today. While STOXX Europe 600 Index has dropped 0.79%, London's FTSE 100 Index moved down 1.29%. Asian markets ended in the negative territory, with Japan's Nikkei Stock Average dropping 1.13%, Australia's S&P/ASX 200 moving down 1.06% and China's Shanghai Composite falling 2.92%. Broker Recommendation Piper Jaffray is out with a report on Rackspace RAX downgrading the company from Overweight to Neutral on valuation. In its report, Piper Jaffray writes, "We are downgrading Rackspace on valuation. The stock closed at $33.43 yesterday, well above our $29 price target. Rackspace is trading at 14.7x our 2011 EBITDA estimate and 65x our EPS, and we believe it is difficult to justify a higher multiple, especially when other internet infrastructure related companies are trading meaningfully lower." RAX closed yesterday at $33.43, down 3.19% from yesterday's close. Breaking news

• Rockwell Collins, Inc. COL today reported net income of $151 million for the first quarter of fiscal year 2011 ended December 31, 2010, an increase of $30 million, or 25%, from $121 million in the same period last year. To read the full news, click here.
• Morgan Stanley MS reports its Q4 EPS at $0.43, versus the consensus of $0.35. To read the full news, click here.
• UnitedHealth UNH reports its Q4 EPS at $0.94, beating the consensus of $0.84. To read the full news, click here.
• ZIOPHARM Oncology, Inc. ZIOP, announced earlier today that The Committee for Orphan Medicinal Products within the European Medicines Agency adopted a positive opinion for darinaparsin designation as an orphan medicinal product for the treatment of peripheral T-cell lymphoma. To read the full news, click here.

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