US Stock Futures Up Ahead Of Facebook IPO

US stock futures are higher this morning. Futures for the Dow Jones Industrial Average surged 46 points to 12,459.00 and S&P 500 index futures rose 5.70 points to 1,307.00. Nasdaq 100 futures gained 10.25 points to 2,515.00. US stocks closed lower on Thursday, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average dropping 1.24% to 12,442.49, the S&P 500 index declining 1.51% to 1,304.86 and the Nasdaq 100 index falling 2.10% to 2,813.69. Brown Shoe Co Inc BWS is expected to post its Q1 EPS at $0.09 on revenue of $600.70 million. Donaldson Company Inc DCI is projected to post its Q3 earnings at $0.43 per share on revenue of $649.88 million. Kirkland's Inc KIRK is projected to post its Q1 EPS at $0.10 on revenue of $97.80 million. Foot Locker Inc FL is estimated to post its Q1 earnings at $0.74 per share on revenue of $1.55 billion. Raven Industries Inc RAVN is expected to post its Q1 EPS at $0.89 on revenue of $112.42 million. Hibbett Sports Inc HIBB is projected to post its Q1 earnings at $0.92 per share on revenue of $225.9 million. Ann Inc ANN is projected to report its FQ1 earnings at $0.51 per share on revenue of $560 million. Facebook Inc FB will debut Friday on the stock markets. Facebook late Thursday priced 421.2 million shares at $38 per share. Aeropostale Inc ARO reported a decline in its first-quarter profit. European markets were lower today. The STOXX Europe 600 Index declined 1.02%, French CAC 40 index fell 0.17%. London's FTSE 100 Index moved down 1.28% and German DAX 30 index declined 0.53%. Moody's downgraded 16 Spanish banks. Asian markets ended mostly lower, with Japan's Nikkei Stock Average falling 2.99%, China's Shanghai Composite dropping 1.44% and Australia's S&P/ASX 200 moving down 2.61%. Hong Kong's Hang Seng index fell 1.30% and India's Sensex gained 0.51%. Nymex crude-oil futures dropped $0.09 to $92.47 a barrel in electronic trade. Gold futures gained $13.10 an ounce to trade at $1,588.