U.S. stock futures are higher Friday morning, as investors await nonfarm payroll figures at 8:30 a.m. ET. Futures on the Dow Jones Industrial Average surged 49 points to 12,301.00 and futures on the S&P 500 stock index gained 5 points to 1,326.00. Nasdaq 100 futures added 11.75 points to 2,348.00.

Positive sentiment ruled the European markets today. While STOXX Europe 600 Index has gained 0.75%, London's FTSE 100 Index moved up 0.82%.

Most Asian markets ended higher, with Japan's Nikkei Stock Average dropping 0.48%, Australia's S&P/ASX 200 moving up 0.53% and China's Shanghai Composite gaining 1.35%. Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index rose 1.17%.

The beleaguered U.S. dollar, which has weakened about 50% versus the euro and about 11% versus the British pound since 2002, is down but hardly out.

The dollar has rallied in the past two months versus the euro (up 8%) and pound (up about 4%), on renewed concern about sovereign debt in Europe. This time, the concern is about Portugal's debt, and the impact continued credit market woes would have on both euro-zone and United Kingdom GDP growth.

On Tuesday, Portugal's Prime Minister Jose Socrates said his country will not need a bail-out, and its budget deficit will be lower than forecast, Bloomberg News reported. He said rumors that the country needs aid are helping "speculators" while hurting Portugal and driving down the euro.

U.S. stock futures are lower this morning, as investors await data on leading indicators. Moody's Investors Service downgraded Ireland's credit rating by five notches. Futures for the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 7 points to 11,424, while those for the S&P 500 lost 1.20 points to 1,237.30. Futures for the Nasdaq 100 moved down 3.25 points to 2,216.00.

US stocks closed higher on Thursday, driven by better-than-expected economic reports. The DJIA gained 0.36% yesterday.

Data on leading economic indicators for November will be released 10 a.m. ET.

The euro was supposed to be a juggernaut -- a way to provide for European global dominance. Well, it seems like it has become a tremendous liability -- with several bailouts of weak countries.

The latest, of course, came over the weekend. Europe put together an 85 billion euro bailout package for Ireland. The hope was that it would calm markets.

But can a bailout really be assuring? Not for investors, as world markets have swooned again. Traders are dumping bonds and moving into the US dollar. Ironic, huh?

This past weekend the European Union cast a bailout plan for Ireland that should be noted as another highlight reflecting not just the problems in Ireland but more broadly the lackluster potential for anything but a meager increase in the world economy over the next few years. Some will be affected more the others and today Ireland just happens to be the attention grabber, with passions running deep:

• "This is not a rescue plan. It is the longest ransom note in history: Do what we tell you and you may, in time, get your country back," said Fintan O'Toole, a commentator and author who led a weekend protest by labor-union activists in central Dublin against the imminent bailout. He called the average interest rate being demanded "viciously extortionate."

Despite all the government printing presses running overtime, inflation does not appear to be on the horizon. Wages are going nowhere, rents are stagnant, and pricing power is modest except for the very few. The biggest inflationary pressure has come from oil prices over the past decade, and that is still the most likely commodity to wreak havoc going forward if there is inflationary pressure. Though the clouds over the global economy are thick, there still will be rays of sunshine in the stock market.

The eurozone sovereign debt crisis has bubbled to the surface again. This time Ireland is in the cross hairs. Ireland may need aid, primarily to bail out its banks. Ireland says it has enough cash to carry it through next summer, but the key concern is keeping Irish banks afloat during this crisis. So far, Ireland hasn't requested financial aid from the European Union.

This uncertainty has set off a selling spree in the euro. About two weeks ago the euro was trading at $1.42. Since the Irish crisis began the euro dropped to $1.35.

Gold shot past $1,400 per ounce to $1,410.4 on the December contract. Triggering the move were worries about sovereign debt levels in Europe and uncertainty concerning the upcoming G-20 meeting, as the Wall Street Journal reports.

First to Europe. The cost of insuring against defaults in countries like Ireland, Portugal and Spain has increased. Ireland's debt, in particular, is causing concern. Interest rates on Irish bonds has risen to 7.8% against Germany's 2.5%.

Just when fears of a eurozone collapse faded from the front page, the news of an Irish bank bailout and of Spain's credit rating downgrade reignited investor concerns, CNN Money reports.

Ireland's central bank had to bail out its Anglo Irish Bank to the tune of $40 billion. The bailout raises its staggering deficit from 11.75% to 32% in 2010, ten times higher that the European Union's guidelines. "We hope to bring closure to this matter and that is what we have done today," Finance Minister, Brian Lenhan said, Reuters reported. "Yes, of course these figures are horrendous but they can be managed over 10 years."

Today was one of those days where it almost felt as though most sectors of the stock market just want to bide time until a 3 day weekend. The consumer confidence reading at 52.5% came in above the consensus estimates of 51.0. Unfortunately this was a day that wavered between positive and negative. It was hard to see if the day's gains were going to hold until right up to the end of the day. Most importantly, the DJIA got closer and closer to 11,000... but 10.940 was about all it had in it.

Here were today's unofficial closing bell levels:

Dow 10,907.42 +11.56 (0.11%)
S&P 500 1,173.27 -0.05 (0.00%)
Nasdaq 2,410.69 +6.33 (0.26%)

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Top Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

In 1999, 16 of the 27 countries in the European Union set out to unite and strengthen their economies by adopting the euro, a single currency. In 2002, physical coins and banknotes entered circulation.

Now, only seven years afterward, Standard & Poor's downgraded the economy of Spain from AAA to AA+ stating that the global economic crisis had heightened the "structural weakness" of Spain's economy. A key factor in lowering the credit rating was Spain's growing deficit, which is predicted to range from 5.8% to 6.6% of GDP. In addition, Spain's economy is expected to contract by 2% this year.

The downgrade has caused the spread between Spanish government bonds and German bonds to rise to record levels. The cost of insuring Spanish bonds through CDSs (credit default swaps) has also risen to record levels.

In addition to Spain, the economy of Greece was downgraded from A to A-. Portugal and Ireland are also at risk of being downgraded.

This brings into question just how long the euro can withstand further government downgrades without collapsing, and with Europe reverting back to single country currencies.

Is the euro falling apart at the seams?

I've always imagined that one of the great joys of belonging to a Socialist group would be not worrying about the well-nigh incomprehensible fluctuations of the stock market. While other people may lose sleep over the screaming highs and soul-crushing lows of the capitalist economies, hard-core socialists just have to worry about plebian things like political purity, the potato harvest, and whether or not the shops currently have razor blades in stock.

With that in mind, I feel somewhat sorry for the Provisional Irish Republican Army. While they rejected the Communist tendencies of the "Official" IRA in the 1960's, they still self-identified as a "non-Marxist Democratic Socialist" organization. However, when they signed a ceasefire in 1997, they rebelled against this identity and invested their funds in the property market and, subsequently, in high-high-dividend deposit accounts in the U.S. According to some reports, Wall Street's recent meltdown may have cost the former terrorist group as much as $274 million.

Needless to say, IRA financial advisors are currently "in a state of panic," as they are watching their funding (and potential political power) evaporate. There is no word yet on whether or not Baader-Meinhof, Shining Path, or Black September were invested in the market!