09:13 am : [BRIEFING.COM] S&P futures vs fair value: +3.30. Nasdaq futures vs fair value: +6.50. With 15 minutes left before the start of the cash session, equity futures signal a modestly higher open.

Investors received a fair share of economic data this morning as the latest weekly initial jobless claims count totaled 324,000, which was lower than the 346,000 that had been expected by the Briefing.com consensus.

Separately, the trade deficit narrowed to $38.8 billion during March after an upwardly revised prior month deficit of $43.6 billion. Economists polled by Briefing.com had expected that the deficit would come in at $43.0 billion.

Among earnings of note, Facebook (FB 28.05, +0.62) is higher by 2.3% following a bottom-line beat.

08:59 am : [BRIEFING.COM] S&P futures vs fair value: +6.00. Nasdaq futures vs fair value: +11.70.

U.S. equity futures have slipped from their highs, but the S&P 500 futures continue to trade with a gain of 0.4%.

Markets across Asia ended mostly lower after returning to work following the Labor Day holiday. India's Sensex (+1.2%) was the exception as traders continued to gobble up shares in anticipation of a rate cut at tomorrow's Reserve Bank of India meeting. China's Shanghai Composite (-0.2%) saw little reaction to the weaker than expected HSBC Final Manufacturing PMI (50.4 actual v. 50.6 expected, 50.5 previous). Elsewhere, the latest Bank of Japan minutes showed some members have expressed concerns over the bold action being taken by the central bank. Data from the region saw Australia's building approvals plunge 5.5% month-over-month (+1.2% expected), Hong Kong's retail sales jump 10.2% year-over-year (12.2%