US Stock Futures Up; GE Earnings In Focus

US stock futures are higher this morning, ahead of earnings from General Electric Company GE. Futures for the Dow Jones Industrial Average surged 38 points to 12,940.00 and S&P 500 index futures rose 3.50 points to 1,376.00. Nasdaq 100 futures gained 7 points to 2,690.50. US stocks closed lower on Thursday, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average dropping 0.53% to 12,964.10, the S&P 500 index declining 0.59% to 1,376.92 and the Nasdaq 100 index dipping 0.79% to 3,007.56. General Electric Company is projected to report its Q1 earnings at $0.33 per share on sales of $34.75 billion. Under Armour Inc UA is projected to post its Q1 EPS at $0.24 on revenue of $379.83 million. McDonald's Corp MCD is expected to post its Q1 earnings at $1.23 per share on sales of $6.53 billion. Honeywell International Inc HON is estimated to report its Q1 earnings at $0.99 per share on sales of $9.16 billion. Kimberly Clark Corp KMB is projected to report its Q1 earnings at $1.17 per share on sales of $5.05 billion. American Electric Power Co Inc AEP is expected to report its Q1 earnings at $0.79 per share on sales of $3.65 billion. Ingersoll Rand Co Ltd IR is estimated to report its Q1 earnings at $0.25 per share on revenue of $3.04 billion. Royal Caribbean Cruises Ltd RCL is projected to post its Q1 earnings at $0.14 per share on revenue of $1.8 billion. Microsoft Corp MSFT reported better-than-expected fiscal third-quarter earnings. Advanced Micro Devices Inc AMD reported its Q1 adjusted profit at $0.12 per share on revenue of $1.59 billion. However, analysts were estimating a profit of $0.09 per share on revenue of $1.56 billion. SanDisk Corp SNDK issued downbeat quarterly revenue forecast. European markets were higher today. The STOXX Europe 600 Index gained 0.23%, London's FTSE 100 Index moved up 0.03%, French CAC 40 index rose 0.68% and German DAX 30 index gained 0.59%. Asian markets ended mixed, with Japan's Nikkei Stock Average dropping 0.28%, China's Shanghai Composite rising 1.19% and Australia's S&P/ASX 200 moving up 0.07%. Hong Kong's Hang Seng index gained 0.07% and India's Sensex dropped 0.75%. Nymex crude-oil futures gained $0.57 to $102.84 a barrel in electronic trade. However, gold futures rose $2.10 to trade at $1,643.50 an ounce. The dollar index (DXY) dropped 0.20% to 79.39, versus 79.560 in North American trade late Thursday. The euro gained 0.30% versus the dollar to trade at $1.3177, versus $1.3144 late Thursday. The dollar gained 0.18% versus the Japanese yen to trade at ¥81.74, up from ¥81.58.