US Stock Futures Up; Alcoa Earnings In Focus

US stock futures are higher this morning, as investors are awaiting earnings from Alcoa Inc

after the closing bell. Futures for the Dow Jones Industrial Average surged 37 points to 12,887.00 and S&P 500 index futures rose 4.10 points to 1,379.00. Nasdaq 100 futures gained 9.50 points to 2,738.00. US stocks closed lower on Monday, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average dropping 1% to 12,929.59, the S&P 500 index dipping 1.14% to 1,382.20 and the Nasdaq 100 index dropping 1.08% to 3,047.08. Data on wholesale inventories for February will be released at 10 a.m. ET. Alcoa Inc

is projected to post a Q1 loss of $0.03 per share on revenue of $5.7 billion. Supervalu Inc

is estimated to report its FQ4 earnings at $0.36 per share on revenue of $8.13 billion. Standard Microsystems Corp

is expected to post a Q4 loss at $0.17 per share on revenue of $91.00 million. PPL Corp

announced its plans to sell 9.9 million shares in a public offering. Harmonic Inc

lowered its first-quarter revenue forecast. European markets were lower today. The STOXX Europe 600 Index declined 0.96%, London's FTSE 100 Index moved down 0.69%, French CAC 40 index fell 1.04% and German DAX 30 index dropped 0.67%. Asian markets ended mostly lower, with Japan's Nikkei Stock Average dropping 0.09%, China's Shanghai Composite rising 0.88% and Australia's S&P/ASX 200 moving down 0.65%. Hong Kong's Hang Seng index dropped 1.15% and India's Sensex gained 0.12%. China swung to a trade surplus of $5.35 billion in March. Crude oil for May delivery dropped $0.54 to $101.91 a barrel. However, gold for June delivery climbed $1.40 to $1,645.30 an ounce. The US dollar fell 0.3071% versus the Japanese yen to trade at ¥81.2400, versus ¥81.65 in late North American trading on Monday.