Coming off the heels of the Labor Day holiday weekend, U.S. equity index futures are about flat this morning after an increase in Spanish bond prices.
The move in Spain occurred after Moody's downgraded the European Union's outlook despite renewed talk of monetary-policy easing at the U.S. Fed's Jackson Hole summit last week.
S&P 500 futures are down 1.25 points, or 0.07 percent, to 1404 after trading as high as 1409.50 overnight. Nasdaq 100 contracts are lower by 1.25 points, or 0.05 percent, to 2769.75 as of this writing.
European indexes are in negative territory, led lower by the FTSE 100, which is off by 1.01 percent. The German DAX is down 0.42 percent, and the Euro STOXX 50 is off 0.15 percent.
Asian indexes closed mostly lower. Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index shed 0.66 percent, and Japan's Nikkei 225 declined by 0.10 percent as slowing growth across Asia continues to weigh on investor sentiment.
The euro/dollar cross is up 0.08 percent to 1.2592. U.S. Dollar Index futures are off 0.01 percent to 81.21 after trading as low as 81.04. The Australian dollar/Japanese yen cross is up 0.18 percent to 80.39.
Commodity prices continue to rise despite softness in global equity markets, led by crude oil futures, which are higher by 0.59 percent to 97.07. Spot gold is up 7.30 points, or 0.43 percent, to 1695. Copper is higher by 0.72 percent to 3.482.
Shares of Medicis are soaring more than 43 percent in pre-market trading after Valeant Pharmaceuticals agreed to purchase the company for $2.6 billion. In anticpiation of the iPhone 5, shares of Apple up from Friday's close.
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