A Peek Into The Market Before The Trading Starts

Pre-open movers US stock futures are higher this morning. Oil prices surged above $111 a barrel. Futures on the Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 43 points to 12,394.00 and S&P 500 index futures surged 5.50 points to 1,334.00. Futures on the Nasdaq 100 gained 6 points at 2,335.25. A Peek Into Global Markets European markets were higher today. While STOXX Europe 600 Index has gained 0.43%, London's FTSE 100 Index moved up 0.86%. Asian markets ended higher, with Japan's Nikkei Stock Average gaining 1.85%, Australia's S&P/ASX 200 moving up 0.62% and China's Shanghai Composite gaining 0.74%. Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index rose 0.47%. Broker Recommendation Analysts at Goldman downgraded Costco Wholesale Corporation COST from “buy” to “neutral.” The target price for Costco has been raised from $80 to $81. Costco shares gained 3.77% to close at $77.82 yesterday. Breaking news

• Elbit Systems Ltd. ESLT announced today, that it has filed a lawsuit in the High Court of Justice of the United Kingdom against the Government of Georgia, in an amount of approximately $100 million. To read the full news, click here.
• Toyota Motor Corporation TM said Friday that it will resume car production at all of its Japanese plants from April 18 to 27 at half capacity. To read the full news, click here.
• For the month of March 2011, Copa Holdings' CPA system-wide passenger traffic (RPM) increased 21.2%, while capacity (ASM) increased 24.0%. System load factor for March 2010 was 75.9%, a 1.7 percentage point decrease when compared to March 2010. To read the full news, click here.
• Goldman Sachs GS has acquired a 12% stake in China's Taikang Life Insurance Co Ltd worth more than $900 million. Analysts have projected that Goldman's ownership could fast-track Taikang's planned initial public offering next year. To read the full news, click here.

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