US Stock Futures Edge Lower Ahead Of Home Sales Report

Pre-open movers

US stock futures traded slightly lower in early pre-market trade. Data on new home sales for January will be released at 10:00 a.m. ET. Futures for the Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped 3 points to 18,183.00, while the Standard & Poor's 500 index futures fell 2.20 points to 2,111.50. Futures for the Nasdaq 100 index declined 7.25 points to 4,443.00.

A Peek Into Global Markets

European markets were lower today, with the Spanish Ibex Index falling 0.09%, STOXX Europe 600 Index declining 0.15% and German DAX 30 index dropping 0.08%. French CAC 40 Index fell 0.26% and London's FTSE 100 Index fell 0.32%.

In Asian markets, Japan's Nikkei Stock Average fell 0.10%, Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index gained 0.11%, China's Shanghai Composite Index fell 0.56% and India's BSE Sensex gained 0.01%. The preliminary HSBC China manufacturing PMI climbed to 50.1 in February, versus a final reading of 49.7 in January.

Broker Recommendation
Analysts at Northland Securities upgraded First Solar, Inc (NASDAQ: FSLR) from Underperform to Market Perform and raised the price target from $46.00 to $51.00..

First Solar shares jumped 10.19% to close at $54.70 yesterday.

Breaking news

• Shares of Lowe's Companies Inc. (NYSE: LOW) surged over 2.5% in pre-market trading after the company reported better-than-expected earnings for the fourth quarter. To read the full news, click here.
• Solazyme (NASDAQ: SZYM) announced that the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has issued a favorable response to Solazyme's notification which concludes that high-oleic algae oil is Generally Recognized as Safe (GRAS) as an ingredient in food products under the intended conditions of use. To read the full news, click here.
• Magic Software Enterprises Ltd. (NASDAQ: MGIC) announced today that it has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire a 70% stake, with an option to increase the holding to 100%, in a profitable Israeli-based company that specializes in software professional services for mainframes and complex large-scale environments. To read the full news, click here.
• Hewlett-Packard Company (NYSE: HPQ) announced financial results Tuesday for its fiscal 2015 first quarter ended January 31, 2015. Revenue came in at $26.8 billion, below estimates of $27.34 billion and the $28.2 billion reported in the prior year period. Non-GAAP EPS was $0.92, $0.01 above expectations and above the $0.90 reported in the first quarter of fiscal 2014. To read the full news, click here.