US Stock Futures Flat; Darden Posts Weak Earnings

Pre-open movers US stock futures traded mostly flat in early pre-market trade, ahead of jobless claims data. The Atlanta Fed's Business Inflation Expectations survey for June will be released at 10:00 a.m. ET. Futures for the Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped 1 point to 16,832.00, while the Standard & Poor's 500 index futures rose 0.10 points to 1,950.40. Futures for the Nasdaq 100 index gained 1.25 points to 3,790.25. A Peek Into Global Markets European markets were mixed today, with the Spanish Ibex Index dropping 0.24%, STOXX Europe 600 Index gaining 0.15%. German DAX 30 index rose 0.82%, French CAC 40 Index fell 0.02% and London's FTSE 100 Index gained 0.31%. German producer prices rose 0.12% on the month in May. The euro zone's current-account surplus widened to 21.5 billion euros ($29.26 billion) in April, versus a revised surplus of EUR19.6 billion in March. Italian industrial orders increased 3.8% in April versus March. In Asian markets, Japan's Nikkei Stock Average fell 0.08%, Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index gained 0.11%, China's Shanghai Composite Index rose 0.15% and India's BSE Sensex tumbled 0.38%. Broker Recommendation Analysts at Deutsche Bank downgraded Pier 1 Imports PIR from “buy” to “hold.” The target price for Pier 1 has been lowered from $24 to $18. Pier 1's shares closed at $15.86 yesterday. Breaking news

• Kite Pharma KITE today announced the pricing of its initial public offering of 7,500,000 shares of its common stock at a price to the public of $17.00 per share. To read the full news, click here.
• The Cookware Company today announced that it entered a strategic licensing agreement with the OXO® brand of Helen of Troy Limited HELE. To read the full news, click here.
• Moody's Corporation MCO announced Thursday that it has secured a majority equity ownership stake in ICRA Ltd., a leading provider of credit ratings and research in India, increasing its stake from 28.5% to over 50.0%. To read the full news, click here.
• Shares of Darden Restaurants DRI dropped more than 3% in pre-market trading- after the company posted downbeat results for the fiscal fourth quarter. To read the full news, click here.