US Stock Futures Surge After Upbeat Apple Earnings

Pre-open moversUS stock futures gained in early pre-market trade, after stronger-than-expected results from Facebook (NASDAQ: FB) and Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL). Investors are also awaiting earnings from General Motors Company (NYSE: GM), Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT), 3M Co (NYSE: MMM) and Caterpillar (NYSE: CAT). Data on weekly jobless claims and durable goods orders for March will be released at 8:30 a.m. ET, while the Kansas City Fed manufacturing index for April will be released at 11:00 a.m. ET. Futures for the Dow Jones Industrial Average surged 42 points to 16,502.00, while the Standard & Poor's 500 index futures rose 7.70 points to 1,880.60. Futures for the Nasdaq 100 index jumped 53 points to 3,607.50.A Peek Into Global Markets European markets were higher today, with the Spanish Ibex Index rising 0.63%, London's FTSE 100 index surging 0.68% and STOXX Europe 600 Index gaining 0.70%. German DAX 30 index jumped 0.85% and French CAC 40 Index climbed 1.05%. French business sentiment slipped to 100 in April versus 101 in March.Asian markets ended mostly lower today. Japan's Nikkei Stock Average fell 0.97%, Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index rose 0.24% and China's Shanghai Composite fell 0.50%. South Korea's GDP climbed 0.9% on the quarter in the first quarter. China's foreign-services trade deficit widened to 60.9 billion yuan ($9.9 billion) in March.Broker RecommendationAnalysts at Bank of America upgraded Republic Airways Holdings (NASDAQ: RJET) from “underperform” to “neutral.” The target price for Republic Airways is set to $10. Republic Airways' shares closed at $8.23 yesterday. Breaking news

• Time Warner Cable (NYSE: TWC) posted a 19.5% gain in its first-quarter profit. Time Warner Cable's quarterly net income surged to $479 million, or $1.70 per share, versus a year-ago profit of $401 million, or $1.34 per share. To read the full news, click here.
• Alexion Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ: ALXN) today announced the initiation of a single, multinational, placebo-controlled trial to evaluate the safety and efficacy of eculizumab (Soliris®) in patients with relapsing neuromyelitis optica (NMO), a life-threatening, ultra-rare neurologic disorder. To read the full news, click here.
• On Wednesday, Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL) reported second quarter results which significantly beat analyst estimates. The company reported earnings per share of $11.62 versus $10.17 analyst estimates. Revenue came in at $45.65 billion versus $43.55 billion analyst estimates. Revenues were up 4.7 percent from $43.6 billion a year ago. To read the full news, click here.
• Novadaq® Technologies (NASDAQ: NVDQ) announced today that it has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire all outstanding shares of Aimago SA. To read the full news, click here.