US Stock Futures Slightly Lower Ahead Of Alcoa Earnings

US stock futures are slightly lower this morning, as investors are awaiting earnings from Alcoa AA later in the day. Futures for the Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped 7 points to 13,300.00 and S&P 500 index futures fell 1.60 points to 1,454.20. Nasdaq 100 futures declined 4 points to 2,713.75. US stocks closed lower on Monday, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average dropping 0.38% to 13,384.29, the S&P 500 index falling 0.31% to 1,461.89 and the Nasdaq 100 index declining 0.09% to 3,098.81. The NFIB small-business-optimism index for December will be released at 7:30 a.m. ET. Data on consumer credit for November will be released at 3 p.m. ET. Alcoa AA is projected to post its Q4 earnings at $0.06 per share on revenue of $5.61 billion. Acuity Brands AYI is expected to report its Q1 earnings at $0.81 per share on revenue of $498.79 million. IHS IHS is estimated to report its Q4 earnings at $1.11 per share on revenue of $409.86 million. Apollo Group APOL is expected to post its Q1 earnings at $0.90 per share on revenue of $1.03 billion. RPM International RPM is estimated to report its Q2 earnings at $0.42 per share on revenue of $998.34 million. Monsanto Company MON is expected to report its Q1 earnings at $0.37 per share on revenue of $2.64 billion. Yum! Brands YUM lowered its fourth-quarter same-store sales forecast for China. Team TISI reported a rise in its fiscal second-quarter earnings. The company also lifted its earnings outlook for fiscal year 2013. European markets were mostly higher today. The STOXX Europe 600 Index rose 0.08%, London's FTSE 100 Index gained 0.04%, German DAX 30 Index declined 0.14% and French CAC 40 Index rose 0.48%. Asian markets ended mostly lower, with Japan's Nikkei Stock Average falling 0.86%, China's Shanghai Composite declining 0.41% and Australia's S&P/ASX 200 Index dropping 0.54%. Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index fell 0.94% and India's Sensex gained 0.26%. Crude-oil rose $0.21 to trade at $93.40 a barrel, while gold futures climbed $7.30 to trade at $1,653.60 an ounce. The US dollar gained 0.03% versus the euro to trade at $1.3121.