US Stock Futures Up; DR Horton, Beazer Homes Earnings In Focus

US stock futures are higher this morning. Futures for the Dow Jones Industrial Average surged 29 points to 12,793 and S&P 500 index futures rose 3 points to 1,378.70. Nasdaq 100 futures gained 9.25 points to 2,589.75. US stocks closed higher on Friday, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average rising 0.03% to 12,815.39, the S&P 500 index gaining 0.17% to 1,379.85 and the Nasdaq 100 index surging 0.32% to 2,904.87. DR Horton

is projected to report its Q4 earnings at $0.28 per share on revenue of $1.35 billion. Beazer Homes USA

is estimated to post a Q4 loss at $1.22 per share on revenue of $335.11 million. Jacobs Engineering Group

is estimated to post its Q4 EPS at $0.79 on revenue of $2.90 billion. Weatherford International Ltd

is estimated to post its Q3 EPS at $0.23. Precision Castparts

announced its plans to acquire Titanium Metals

for around $2.9 billion. Lockheed Martin

announced the resignation of Chris Kubasik as vice chairman, president and chief operating officer after an ethics investigation found he had a personal relationship with a subordinate employee. Star Scientific

reported its Q3 net profit of $0.4 million, versus a year-ago net loss of $6.6 million. European markets were mixed today. The STOXX Europe 600 Index dropped 0.01%, London's FTSE 100 Index rose 0.15%, French CAC 40 Index declined 0.10% and German DAX 30 index gained 0.12%. Asian markets ended mostly lower, with Japan's Nikkei Stock Average falling 0.93%, China's Shanghai Composite gaining 0.49% and Australia's S&P/ASX 200 dropping 0.28%. Hong Kong's Hang Seng index rose 0.21% and India's Sensex declined 0.07%. Japan's gross domestic product declined 0.9% during the third quarter. The country's GDP dropped 3.5% on an annualized basis. Crude oil for December delivery dropped $0.21 to trade at $85.86 a barrel on Globex.