A Peek Into The Market Before The Trading Starts

Pre-open movers US stock futures are higher this morning, as investors are awaiting data on weekly jobless numbers, existing home sales and leading indicators. Futures on the Dow Jones Industrial Average surged 40 points to 12,572.00 and futures on the S&P 500 stock index rose 4.70 points to 1,343.30. Nasdaq 100 futures gained 6.00 points to 2,367.50. A Peek Into Global Markets Asian markets ended mixed, with Japan's Nikkei Stock Average dropping 0.43%, Australia's S&P/ASX 200 moving up 1.32% and China's Shanghai Composite declining 0.46%. Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index rose 0.66% and India's Sensex gained 0.31%. European markets were higher today. The STOXX Europe 600 Index has gained 0.88%, London's FTSE 100 Index moved up 0.99%. Broker Recommendation Analysts at Jefferies & Company downgraded Deere & Company DE from “buy” to “hold.” The target price for DE has been lowered from $110 to $92. DE shares dropped 0.53% to close at $86.50 yesterday. Breaking news

• Sears Holdings Corp SHLD swung to a FQ1 loss from a year-ago profit. Sears Holdings posted a 3.6% drop in its domestic same-store sales. To read the full news, click here.
• Stage Stores Inc SSI swung to a first-quarter loss from a year-earlier profit. Stage Stores posted a quarterly loss of $461,000, or $0.01 per share, versus a profit of $2.2 million, or $0.06 per share, in the year-earlier period. To read the full news, click here.
• Williams-Sonoma Inc WSM reported a 62% rise in its fiscal first-quarter net income. Williams-Sonoma reported a quarterly profit at $31.6 million, or $0.29 per share, versus $19.5 million, or $0.18 per share, in the year-ago period. To read the full news, click here.
• Omeros Corporation OMER today announced that it is advancing two of its product candidates from its PharmacoSurgery platform – OMS103HP for arthroscopic meniscectomy and OMS302 for intra-ocular lens replacement surgery – into Phase 3 clinical development programs. To read the full news, click here.

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