US Stock Futures Mixed After Apple Results

US stock futures traded mixed in early pre-market trade, after Apple

reported downbeat holiday iPhone sales and issued weak sales forecast for the second quarter. The FOMC will begin its two-day policy meeting today. Data on durable goods orders for December will be released at 8:30 a.m. ET, while the S&P/Case-Shiller home price index for October will be released at 9:00 a.m. ET. The Conference Board's consumer confidence index, the Richmond Fed manufacturing index and the State Street Investor Confidence Index for January will be released at 10:00 a.m. ET. Futures for the Dow Jones Industrial Average surged 78 points to 15,865.00, while the Standard & Poor's 500 index futures gained 7.60 points to 1,783.30. Futures for the Nasdaq 100 index fell 12 points to 3,491.00.

European markets were higher today, with the Spanish Ibex Index rising 1.31%, London's FTSE 100 index gaining 0.40% and STOXX Europe 600 Index climbing 0.65%. German DAX 30 index rose 0.60% and French CAC 40 Index climbed 0.63%. French consumer confidence surged to 86 in January versus 85 in December. The UK economy grew by 0.7% in the fourth quarter versus a 0.8% growth in the prior three-month period. Italy's consumer confidence index climbed to a reading of 98.0 in January versus 96.4 in December. Asian markets ended mostly lower today. Japan's Nikkei Stock Average fell 0.17%, China's Shanghai Composite gained 0.26%, Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index declined 0.07% and India's BSE Sensex fell 0.12%. The Reserve Bank of India lifted the benchmark interest rate by a quarter point to 8%.

Analysts at Imperial Capital upgraded Southwest Airlines Company

from “in-line” to “outperform.” The target price for Southwest Airlines has been raised from $17 to $26. Southwest Airlines' shares closed at $20.61 yesterday.