A Peek Into The Market Before The Trading Starts

Pre-open movers US stock futures are mixed, this morning as investors awaited nonfarm payrolls figures for November. Futures on the Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 6 points to 11,369 and S&P 500 futures fell 0.20 point to 1,223. Nasdaq 100 futures rose 2 points to 2,189. A Peek Into Global Markets European markets are negative today. While STOXX Europe 600 Index has fallen 0.04%, London's FTSE 100 Index moved down 0.08%. Asian markets ended mixed, with Japan's Nikkei Stock Average adding 0.10%, Australia's S&P/ASX 200 moving up 0.38% and China's Shanghai Composite losing 0.04%. Broker Recommendation Piper Jaffray is raising its price target on Chart Industries Inc. GTLS to $29 from $42 and is remaining shares at Overweight. In a note sent to clients Piper Jaffray writes, "We continue to see strong catalysts in all segments of Chart's business as we roll out our FY12 estimates, most immediately with D&S opportunities related to the proliferation of fleet NGV's in China. We do believe E&C orders will trend higher with revenue approaching FY09's levels in FY12 as oper. margins in the segment recover to 12% & 22% in FY11 & FY12 from ~3% in FY10. We believe our revenue growth of ~27% and ~19% for each year could prove conservative given the breadth of catalysts in Chart's existing businesses and continued acquisition activity." Shares of GTLS gained $1.64 yesterday to close at $34.25, a gain of over 5%. Breaking news

• The Cato Corporation CATO announced today that its Board of Directors declared a regular quarterly dividend of $0.185 per share. To read the full news, click here.
• Big Lots, Inc. BIG today reported net income of $17.7 million, or $0.23 per diluted share, and income from continuing operations of $17.7 million, or $0.23 per diluted share, for the third quarter of fiscal 2010 ended October 30, 2010. To read the full news, click here.
• Shire plc SHPGY announced that its subsidiary Shire LLC has filed a lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California against Impax Laboratories, Inc. and Watson Pharmaceuticals, Inc., Watson Laboratories, Inc.-Florida, Watson Pharma, Inc and ANDA, Inc. for the infringement of U.S. Patent Nos. 5,854,290, 6,287,599, and 6,811,794. To read the full news, click here.
• National Coal Corp. NCOC announces that following a special shareholders' meeting held yesterday, the holders of a majority of its outstanding shares entitled to vote approved a merger agreement with Ranger Energy Investments, LLC, an acquisition vehicle for Jim Justice, a businessman and operator of Appalachian coal assets. To read the full news, click here.

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