US Stock Futures Up; Alcoa Reports Q2 Results

US stock futures are higher this morning. Futures for the Dow Jones Industrial Average surged 45 points to 12,730.00 and S&P 500 index futures rose 4 points to 1,353.20. Nasdaq 100 futures gained 8 points to 2,614.00. US stocks closed lower on Monday, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average dropping 0.28% to 12,736.29, the S&P 500 index falling 0.16% to 1,352.46 and the Nasdaq 100 index declining 0.19% to 2,931.77. The NFIB small-business index for June will be released at 7:30 am ET. Alcoa AA reported better-than-expected second-quarter earnings. PriceSmart PSMT reported a drop in its third-quarter profit. PriceSmart Advanced Micro Devices AMD cut its second-quarter revenue forecast. The Shaw Group SHAW is projected to report its Q3 earnings at $0.58 per share on revenue of $1.49 billion. Helen of Troy Limited HELE is estimated to report its Q1 EPS at $0.86 on revenue of $299.05 million. Wolverine World Wide WWW is expected to report its Q2 EPS at $0.44 on revenue of $314.46 million. Zep ZEP is estimated to report its Q3 earnings at $0.37 per share on revenue of $174.46 million. Britain's trade deficit narrowed to 8.4 billion pounds ($13 billion) in May, versus 9.7 billion pounds in April, according to the UK Office for National Statistics. European markets were higher today. The STOXX Europe 600 Index rose 0.99%, London's FTSE 100 Index surged 0.78%, French CAC 40 Index gained 1.12% and German DAX 30 index rose 1.22%. Asian markets ended mostly lower, with Japan's Nikkei Stock Average falling 0.44%, China's Shanghai Composite dropping 0.29% and Australia's S&P/ASX 200 dropping 0.53%. Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index fell 0.16% India's Sensex rose 1.30%. China posted a wider trade surplus in June. The country's trade surplus rose to $31.7 billion, up from $18.7 billion surplus in May. Nymex crude-oil futures dropped $0.46 to trade at $85.53 a barrel in electronic trade. Gold futures gained $4.20 to $1,593.30 an ounce. The US dollar dropped 0.2% versus the Japanese yen to trade at ¥79.38.