A Peek Into The Market Before The Trading Starts

US stock futures are higher this morning as investors are awaiting figures on Q4 economic growth. Futures for the Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 11 points to 11,955 and S&P 500 futures rose 0.20 point to 1,296. Futures for the Nasdaq 100 gained 2.75 points at 2,326.

Negative sentiment ruled the European markets today. While STOXX Europe 600 Index has dropped 0.07%, London's FTSE 100 Index moved down 0.81%. Mostly Asian markets ended lower, with Japan's Nikkei Stock Average dropping 1.13%, Australia's S&P/ASX 200 moving down 0.70% and China's Shanghai Composite gaining 0.13%.

Benchmark Capital is upgrading shares of Rackspace Hosting, Inc.

to Buy, and the price target goes to $40 from $29. In a note to clients, Benchmark writes, "We upgrade Rackspace from Hold to Buy as its managed hosting and cloud product set appears increasingly strategic to large, deep-pocketed telecom and IT companies. Rackspace is a high-growth, pure-play cloud hosting provider and an attractive takeover candidate. It warrants a premium to fellow hosting peers due to superior growth and strategic positioning. Our price target increases from $29 to $40 per share, or 16x 2011E EBITDA. Last night, Verizon announced a tender offer for Terremark at $1.4 billion, which equates to 14x FY12E EBITDA (FY ends March). Terremark enhances Verizon's cloud services for enterprises, stating that Terremark would boost its everything-as-a-service strategy. This tender offer increases valuation parameters for data center stocks, especially ones with vibrant cloud strategies such as Rackspace and Savvis." Shares of RAX closed at $32.21 yesterday, up 34 cents.

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