Asian markets rallied in overnight trade, with Hong Kong's Hang Seng gaining 1.8 percent. Shares in Europe are mostly higher and U.S. futures point to a positive open.

Yahoo named Google's Marissa Mayer its new chief executive in a surprise announcement yesterday. Mayer led Google's search operations for years, before managing its launch in local. EXCLUSIVE: Marc Andreessen tells us what he thinks of Yahoo's choice >

Business conditions in Germany worsened for the third straight month, but may have hit bottom, the Zew institute said today. The key expectations index fell to -19.6 in July from -16.9 a month earlier.

Moody's downgraded 13 Italian banks yesterday after cutting Italy's sovereign rating last week. Ratings were lowered one level for seven of the institutions, and by two notches for the remaining six.