A Peek Into The Market Before The Trading Starts

Pre-open movers US stock futures are higher this morning after General Electric GE reported upbeat quarterly results. Google Inc GOOG also reported better-than-expected quarterly earnings after the Thursday's closing bell. Futures on the Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 26 points to 11,800 and S&P 500 futures rose 4.50 points to 1,281. Nasdaq 100 futures gained 6 points at 2,288. A Peek Into Global Markets Positive sentiment ruled the European markets today. While STOXX Europe 600 Index has gained 0.78%, London's FTSE 100 Index moved up 0.57%. Asian markets ended mixed, with Japan's Nikkei Stock Average dropping 1.56%, Australia's S&P/ASX 200 moving down 0.64% and China's Shanghai Composite rising 1.41%. Broker Recommendation Oppenheimer & Co. has a Perform rating on shares of Intrepid Potash IPI after it pre-announced earnings. in a note to clients, Oppenheimer writes, "In an 8-K today, IPI pre-announced better than expected preliminary sales data for 4Q10. Intrepid sold 210-220K tons of potash at $380-$390/ton and 20-30K tons of Trio at $215-$225/ton. We update our model to reflect the pre-announced figures, which brings our 4Q10E up by $0.06 to $0.20. We are also flowing through higher potash and Trio prices starting in 2011, as market prices have increased since we published our previous model. We raise '11E by $0.25 to $1.46. As we wrote on our 3Q10 report for IPI "ag market dynamics have taken a turn for the better," as prices have risen for corn, soybeans, and other crops." Shares of IPI lost 96 cents yesterday to close at $34.59, a loss of 2.7%. Breaking news

• Men's Wearhouse MW announced earlier today that its Board of Directors declared a quarterly cash dividend of $0.12 per share on the Company's common stock, payable on March 25, 2011 to shareholders of record at the close of business on March 15, 2011. To read the full news, click here.
• Bank of America Corporation BAC today reported a net loss of $1.2 billion, or $0.16 per diluted share, for the fourth quarter of 2010, including the previously announced goodwill impairment charge of $2.0 billion in the Home Loans and Insurance segment. To read the full news, click here.
• GE GE announced earlier today strong fourth-quarter 2010 earnings from continuing operations (attributable to GE) of $3.9 billion, or $0.36 per share, up 33% from the fourth quarter of 2009. To read the full news, click here.
• Air Products APD earlier today reported net income of $296 million, or diluted earnings per share (EPS) of $1.35, for its fiscal first quarter ended December 31, 2010 versus $252 million and $1.16 for the first quarter of fiscal 2010. To read the full news, click here.

Read more from Benzinga's Markets.