Before The Bell: A Peek Into The Markets Today

After the highs of Tuesday, US stock futures slip today as investors are taking a breather after last session’s rallies. The DJIA futures are down 0.04% at 10, 362, the S&P 500 futures are down 0.13% at 1,088, and the NASDAQ futures are down 0.16% at 1,837. Read more here . The Potash POT takeover approach remained in the spotlight on Wednesday. BHP Billiton BHP executives said it would go directly to POT’s holders with an unchanged offer price of $130 a share in cash, even after the Potash board described the bid as "grossly inadequate." Target Corporation TGT posted higher quarterly earnings, helped by sales of more profitable items like clothing and improved profit at its credit card business. TGT's profits rose to $679 million, or $0.92 a share, in the second quarter ended July 31 from $594 million, or 79 cents a share, a year earlier. Analysts had forecast $0.92 a share, according to Thomson Reuters. Earlier this month, Target reported sales of $15.13 million for the quarter at its retail business, up 3.8 %t from a year earlier. Deere & Co DE reported better-than-expected FQ3 results, driven by healthy demand for the company’s biggest tractors and harvesters in the US. DE posted FQ3 profits of $617 million, or $1.44 per share, as compared to $420 million, or $0.99 per share, reported in the year-ago period. The company’s sales increased 16% y/y to $6.84 billion. However, the analysts expected the company to post a profit before items at $1.24 per share, with a net profit of $1.14 per share on $6.52 billion in sales. BJ's Wholesale Club Inc BJ reports its Q2 EPS at $0.67, falling short of the consensus of $0.73. BJ reports its Q2 revenue at $2.7 billion, versus the estimates of $2.8 billion. BJ’s shares gained 0.63% to close at $43.31 yesterday. What’s Happening Globally European shares declined on Wednesday, with commodity stocks emerging as the worst performers. Investors are eagerly waiting for fresh developments on BHP Billiton's move for Potash Corp. The Stoxx Europe 600 index SXXP traded at 257.87, down 0.2%, after gaining 1.1% in the previous session. Read more here. In the Asian markets, the Hang Seng Index dropped more than 114 points to settle at 21,022.73. The CAC 40 dropped almost 8 points at 3,655.23, and the FTSE 100 dropped 27 points at 5,323.27. With the Nikkei 225 gaining 78.86 points at 9,250.54, the Asian markets experienced mixed sessions. Read more here. Breaking News Shares of Analog Devices ADI may rise after the chipmaker late Tuesday posted fiscal third-quarter results that beat analyst forecasts. ADI was at $29.39, up 2.01%, in after hours trading on Tuesday. The US Dollar slipped 0.4% to JPY 85.25, while the EUR/USD pair gained 0.2% at $1.2892. Read more from Benzinga's Markets.