US Stock Futures Up; All Eyes On Fed

US stock futures are higher this morning, as investors are awaiting a Federal Reserve policy meeting later in the day. Futures for the Dow Jones Industrial Average surged 72 points to 12,969.00 and S&P 500 index futures rose 8.60 points to 1,375.40. Nasdaq 100 futures gained 16 points to 2,663.00. US stocks closed mixed on Monday, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average rising 0.29% to 12,959.71, the S&P 500 index surging 0.02% to 1,371.09 and the Nasdaq 100 index dropping 0.16% to 2,983.66. Data on February retail-sales will be released at 8:30 a.m. ET. The Fed is scheduled to announce its rate decision at 2:15 p.m. FactSet Research Systems Inc FDS is expected to post its Q2 EPS at $1.00 on revenue of $198.16 million. Xerium Technologies Inc XRM is expected to post its Q4 EPS at $0.31 on revenue of $149.43 million. Rex American Resources Corp REX is projected to report its Q4 earnings at $0.88 per share on revenue of $137.3 million. Medifast Inc MED is projected to post its Q4 EPS at $0.21 on revenue of $70.97 million. Majesco Entertainment Co COOL reported downbeat quarterly profit. Safe Bulkers Inc SB announced its plans to offer 5 million shares of its common stock to the public. Urban Outfitters Inc URBN reported its Q4 earnings at $0.28 per share, versus analysts' estimates of $0.29 per share. Yahoo! Inc YHOO sued Facebook Inc for infringement of patents in a San Jose, California federal court. European markets were higher today. The STOXX Europe 600 Index surged 1.10%, London's FTSE 100 Index moved up 0.81%, French CAC 40 index rose 1% and German DAX 30 index gained 1.06%. Asian markets ended higher, with Japan's Nikkei Stock Average rising 0.09% and Australia's S&P/ASX 200 moving up 1.13%. Hong Kong's Hang Seng index gained 0.97% and India's Sensex rose 1.28%. Nymex crude-oil gained $0.54 to $106.88 a barrel in electronic trade. The euro dropped 0.26% against the US dollar to trade at $1.3121. However, the dollar gained 0.47% versus the Japanese yen to trade at 82.61 yen.