A Peek Into The Market Before The Trading Starts

Pre-open movers US stock futures are higher this morning. Futures for the Dow Jones Industrial Average surged 22 points to 13,521.00 and S&P 500 index futures rose 2 points to 1,454.90. Nasdaq 100 futures gained 6.25 points to 2,856.25. A Peek Into Global Markets European markets were mixed today. The STOXX Europe 600 Index rose 0.15%, London's FTSE 100 Index gained 0.15%, French CAC 40 Index fell 0.16% and German DAX 30 index gained 0.02%. Asian markets ended higher, with Japan's Nikkei Stock Average rising 1.19%, China's Shanghai Composite gaining 0.40% and Australia's S&P/ASX 200 rising 0.51%. Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index rose 1.16%. Broker Recommendation Analysts at Goldman Sachs downgraded Charles Schwab SCHW from “buy” to “neutral.” The target price for Charles Schwab has been lowered from $15 to $14. Charles Schwab shares dropped 1.76% to close at $13.94 yesterday. Breaking news

• Vivint and Blackstone BX today announced a definitive agreement under which a fund managed by Blackstone on behalf of its private equity investors, Blackstone Capital Partner VI, L.P., will acquire Vivint from its existing shareholders, including Goldman Sachs, Peterson Partners, Jupiter Partners and other minority shareholders for in excess of $2.0 billion. To read the full news, click here.
• Commtouch CTCH today announced that AVG Technologies AVG has deployed Commtouch's GlobalView Web URL technology into AVG Family Safety and AVG CloudCare. To read the full news, click here.
• Meritor MTOR today announced an incremental investment of $16 million in its European brake operations. To read the full news, click here.
• Manhattan Bridge Capital LOAN announced that its Board of Directors has authorized a common stock repurchase allowing the buyback of up to 100,000 common shares in market or off-market transactions at prevailing prices over the next twelve months. To read the full news, click here.