A Peek Into The Market Before The Trading Starts

Pre-open movers US stock futures are higher this morning, as China reported stronger-than-expected trade surplus. Futures on the Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 48 points to 12,679.00 and futures on the S&P 500 stock index rose 6 points to 1,348.70. Nasdaq 100 futures surged 13.25 points to 2,399.75. A Peek Into Global Markets Asian markets ended mixed, with Japan's Nikkei Stock Average surging 0.25%Australia's S&P/ASX 200 moving down 0.58% and China's Shanghai Composite rising 0.63%. Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index gained 0.76% and India's Sensex dropped 0.16%. European markets were higher today. The STOXX Europe 600 Index has gained 0.98%, London's FTSE 100 Index moved up 1.24%. Broker Recommendation Analysts at Goldman Sachs upgraded Saks Inc SKS from “sell” to “neutral.” The target price for SKS has been raised from $11 to $12. Saks shares gained 0.44% to close at $11.32 yesterday. Breaking news

• Microsoft Corporation MSFT is widely reported to be close to buying the online telephone service Skype for more than $8 billion. To read the full news, click here.
• Roper Industries, Inc. ROP today announced that it has signed a definitive agreement to acquire Northern Digital, Inc., a leading provider of 3-D measurement technology for medical applications. Northern Digital will become part of Roper's medical platform. To read the full news, click here.
• Warner Music Group Corp WMG released its fiscal second-quarter results on Tuesday. The company posted a FQ2 net loss of $38 million, or $0.25 per share, versus a loss of $25 million, or $0.17 per share, in the year-earlier period. To read the full news, click here.
• Celanese Corp CE raised its earnings forecast for 2013. To read the full news, click here.

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