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 125 points to 15,113.00 and S&P 500 index futures rose 14.20 points to 1,632.60. Nasdaq 100 futures jumped 29.25 points to 2,966.25. A Peek Into Global Markets European markets were higher today. The STOXX Europe 600 Index climbed 1.14%, London's FTSE 100 index gained 0.93%, French CAC 40 Index climbed 1.85% and German DAX 30 index rose 1.41%. Asian markets ended higher, with Japan's Nikkei Stock Average rising 2.73%, China's Shanghai Composite dropping 0.27% and Australia's ASX/S&P500 surging 0.62%. Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index rose 1.22% and India's Sensex jumped 0.77%. Broker Recommendation Piper Jaffray upgraded Heartland Payment Systems HPY from “neutral” to “overweight.” The target price for Heartland Payment has been raised from $34 to $42. Heartland Payment shares closed at $34.66 on Friday. Breaking news

• Lowe's Companies LOW today announced it has entered into an asset purchase agreement with Orchard Supply Hardware OSH, under which Lowe's will acquire the majority of Orchard's assets for approximately $205 million in cash, plus the assumption of payables owed to nearly all of Orchard's supplier partners. To read the full news, click here.
• Yahoo! Asia Pacific YHOO and Millward Brown, a leader in Brand Equity, Advertising Effectiveness and Media research, today announced a partnership to evaluate the brand impact of digital advertising. To read the full news, click here.
• ATK ATK announced the award of a contract valued at more than $50 million from Rolls-Royce plc, United Kingdom, to produce aft fan composite cases for the new Trent XWB-97 engine. To read the full news, click here.
• International Game Technology IGT will provide Loto Quebec access to its entire online and mobile games library with a full integration to IGT rgs® (remote game server). To read the full news, click here.