These data points are on the heels of the Labor Department announcing that initial claims had fallen to 364,000, the lowest since April 2008. Maximize Your Trades With Profitly

In the retail world, Sears Holdings announced it would close 100 to 120 Kmart stores due to lackluster sales performances. The company reported that earnings would fall by more than half when compared to a year ago.

European markets are still just now getting started after a long holiday weekend, with London remaining closed. Both French and German markets were edging higher on data expectations out of the United States. The Dax 30 was up .3% to 5,898, while the French CAC 40 index added .4% to 3,113.87.

Commodity trading was mostly flat coming off the long holiday with Nymex crude futures flat in trading.

Stocks to watch this morning include Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL), Parlux Fragrances, Inc. (NASDAQ:PARL), Clearwire Corporation (NASDAQ:CLWR), Frontlione Ltd. (NYSE:FRO), Micron Technology, Inc. (NASDAQ:MU) and Cal-Maine Foods, Inc. (NASDAQ:CALM)

Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) is down slightly in pre market at $403.04 this morning. AAPL has traded around 3 thousand shares in early trading and trades 12.87 million shares a day on average. Apple’s Italian retail organizations were fined a total of 900 thousand euros by Italy’s Antitrut Authority for not providing clear information to customers on product assistance. Over the past five trading days, AAPL stock is up more than $20 a share. The company has a market cap of 374.86 million. Maximize Your Trades With Profitly

Parlux Fragrances, Inc. (NASDAQ:PARL) is up 94.52% in pre market trading at $6.75. PARL stock is up this morning after Perfumania Holdings announced a deal to buy the company for $170 million. PARL trades 26.8 thousand shares a day on average. The company has a market cap of 72.07 million.

Clearwire Corporation (NASDAQ:CLWR) is up 2.04% in pre market trading at $2.00. CLWR trades on average 17.59 million shares a day. CLWR trades relatively flat last week except last Tuesday when the stock fell from $2.10 to $1.90. The company has a market cap of 1.8 billion.

Fronline Ltd. (NYSE:FRO) closed Friday up 6.33% at $4.20. FRO trades 3.2 million shares a day on average. Heading in to 2012, Frontline will announce preliminary fourth quarter and financial year 2011 results on February 2012. The company has a market cap of 327.01 million.

Micron Technology, Inc. (NASDAQ:MU) is up 0.23% in pre market trading at $6.41. MU trades 32.61 million shares a day on average. Late last week, MU stock jumped nearly $1 a share after the company said demand in the PC market should improve early next year. The company has a market cap of 6.32 billion.

Cal-Maine Foods, Inc (NASDAQ:CALM) is up 5.11% in pre market trading at $36.00. Cal-Maine announced income jumped 53% in its fiscal second-quarter thanks to strong retail demand during the holidays. CALM trades 71.4 thousand shares a day on average. The company has a market cap of 817.58 million.