A Peek Into The Markets: U.S. Stock Futures Gain On Black Friday

Pre-open movers

U.S. stock futures traded higher in early pre-market trade. Data on U.S. international trade in goods for October will be released at 8:30 a.m. ET, while the Markit Services PMI for October is schedule for release at 9:45 a.m. ET.

Futures for the Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 45 points to 19,099.00, while the Standard & Poor’s 500 index futures gained 3 points to 2,204.00. Futures for the Nasdaq 100 index climbed 5.25 points to 4,854.75.

Oil prices traded lower as Brent crude futures fell 1.24 percent to trade at $48.39 per barrel, while US WTI crude futures also fell 1.13 percent to trade at $47.42 a barrel.

A Peek Into Global Markets

European markets were mostly lower today, with the Spanish Ibex Index dropping 0.15 percent, STOXX Europe 600 Index falling 0.04 percent and German DAX 30 index dropping 0.10 percent. The UK's FTSE index was trading lower by 0.07 percent, while French CAC 40 Index declined 0.22 percent.

In Asian markets, Japan’s Nikkei Stock Average rose 0.26 percent, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index gained 0.51 percent, China’s Shanghai Composite Index climbed 0.62 percent and India’s BSE Sensex surged 1.76 percent.

Broker Recommendation

Analysts at BMO Capital downgraded Eli Lilly and Co (NYSE: LLY) from Outperform to Market Perform.

Eli Lilly shares rose 0.16 percent to $68.11 in pre-market trading.

Breaking news

• Ctrip.Com International Ltd (ADR) (NASDAQ: CTRP) announced plans to buy Skyscanner Holdings Ltd in a deal valued at 1.4 billion pounds ($1.74 billion). The company also reported better-than-expected Q3 results.
• Sociedad Quimica y Minera de Chile (ADR) (NYSE: SQM) reported a Q3 profit of $55.8 million and revenue of $504 million on Wednesday.
• Insteel Industries Inc. (NASDAQ: IIIN) will replace Littelfuse, Inc. (NASDAQ: LFUS) in the S&P SmallCap 600 after the close of trading on November 28.