US Stock Futures Down; Fed Minutes, Economic Data In Focus

US stock futures are lower this morning, as investors are awaiting consumer confidence data and the minutes of the recent Federal Open Market Committee. Futures for the Dow Jones Industrial Average dipped 59 points to 11,458.00 and S&P 500 index futures fell 7.70 points to 1,200.40. Nasdaq 100 futures dropped 10.75 points to 2,209.25. US stocks closed higher on Monday, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average surging 2.26% to 11,539.25, the S&P 500 index rising 2.83% to 1,210.08 and the Nasdaq 100 index jumping 3.32% to 2,562.11. Case-Shiller data on home prices for June will be released at 9:00 a.m. ET. The Conference Board's August consumer confidence reading will also be released today. The minutes of the latest Federal Open Market Committee meeting will be released at 2:00 p.m. ET. Barnes & Noble Inc

is expected to report a FQ1 loss at $0.94 per share. Dollar General Corporation

is estimated to report its Q2 EPS at $0.48 on sales of $3.54 billion. 1-800-Flowers.com Inc

is expected to report its FQ4 EPS at $0.01 on sales of $175.3 million. Winn-Dixie Stores Inc

reported a 48% decline in its fourth-quarter net income. Winn-Dixie's net income for the period dropped to $7.3 million, or $0.13 per share, from $14 million, or $0.25 per share, in the year-ago period. Its revenue dipped 4% to $1.62 billion from $1.68 billion. However, analysts were expecting adjusted profit of $0.12 per share on revenue of $1.61 billion. Universal Display Corp

entered into a technology licensing agreement with Panasonic Idemitsu OLED Lighting Co Ltd. European markets were mixed today. The STOXX Europe 600 Index rose 0.74%, London's FTSE 100 Index moved up 2.33%, French CAC 40 index fell 0.16% and German DAX 30 index dropped 0.76%. Asian markets ended mostly higher, with Japan's Nikkei Stock Average surging 1.1586%, Australia's S&P/ASX 200 moving up 0.18% and China's Shanghai Composite dropping 0.38%. Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index rose 1.7068% and India's Sensex jumped 1.61%. Light crude for October delivery dropped 0.42% to $86.90 a barrel. The dollar index (DXY) rose 0.60% to 74.08, up from 73.728 in late North American trading on Monday. The euro dropped 0.65% versus the greenback to trade at $1.4417, versus $1.4516 in late trading Monday