A Peek Into The Market Before The Trading Starts

Pre-open movers US stock futures opened mixed this morning, after the FOMC minutes revealed that the Fed would continue with its quantitative easing in the near term. Futures for the Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 5 points to 14,739.00 and S&P 500 index futures dropped 0.60 points to 1,582.20. Nasdaq 100 futures declined 3.75 points to 2,848.50. A Peek Into Global Markets European markets opened wobbly today. The STOXX Europe 600 Index rose 0.60%. London's FTSE 100 Index dipped 0.34%. French CAC 40 Index rose 0.63% and German DAX 30 index gained 0.54%.

Asian markets moved up, with Japan's Nikkei Stock Average rising 1.96% and Australia's S&P/ASX 200 rose 0.79%. Hong Kong's Hang Seng rose 0.30% and India's Sensex climbed up 0.74%.

Broker Recommendation Analysts at Goldman Sachs downgraded Family Dollar Stores, Inc. (NYSE: FDO) from “buy” to “neutral”. The target price for Family Dollar Stores has been lowered from $69.00 to $65.00. Family Dollar Stores shares closed at $60.44 yesterday. Breaking news

• Genesee & Wyoming Inc. (G&W) (NYSE: GWR) today reported traffic volumes for March 2013 and the first quarter of 2013. To read the full news, click here.
• Bright Horizons Family Solutions (NYSE: BFAM) today announced it has completed the acquisition of kidsunlimited, a premier operator of nurseries throughout England and Scotland. To read the full news, click here.
• Pharmacyclics (NASDAQ: PCYC) announced today that the Phase III clinical trial (RESONATE™-2), a monotherapy trial using ibrutinib versus chlorambucil in elderly patients with newly diagnosed chronic lymphocytic leukemia / small lymphocyctic lymphoma (CLL/SLL) has enrolled its fifth patient. To read the full news, click here.
• The euro stumbled on Thursday morning and traded down to $1.30. Growing financial, political and social problems in the region have been weighing on the common currency recently, and many aren't expecting a resolution anytime soon. To read the full news, click here.