US Stock Futures Signal Higher Start On Wall Street

US stock futures are higher this morning, as Alcoa Inc AA reported upbeat fourth-quarter revenue. Futures for the Dow Jones Industrial Average jumped 100 points to 12,437.00 and S&P 500 index futures rose 11.40 points to 1,287.00. Nasdaq 100 futures surged 22.75 points to 2,369.50. US stocks closed higher on Monday, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average rising 0.27% to 12,392.69, the S&P 500 index gaining 0.23% to 1,280.70 and the Nasdaq 100 index gaining 0.09% to 2,676.56. The NFIB Index of Small Business Optimism for December will be released at 7:30 a.m. ET. Data on wholesale inventories for November will be released at 10 a.m. ET. SYNNEX Corp SNX is estimated to report its FQ4 EPS at $1.14 on revenue of $2.82 billion. Tiffany & Co TIF is expected to report its December sales results. Juniper Networks Inc JNPR lowered its fourth-quarter forecast. Alcoa Inc swung to a fourth-quarter loss. Liz Claiborne LIZ now projects adjusted FY12 earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization of $125 million to $140 million, versus its earlier forecast of $130 million to $150 million. European markets were higher today. The STOXX Europe 600 Index rose 1.31%, London's FTSE 100 Index moved up 1.05%, French CAC 40 index rose 2.07% and German DAX 30 index surged 2.28%. Asian markets ended higher, with Japan's Nikkei Stock Average gaining 0.3803%, China's Shanghai Composite gaining 2.69% and Australia's S&P/ASX 200 moving up 1.08%. Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index rose 0.7345% and India's Sensex jumped 2.22%. China's trade surplus widened to $16.52 billion in December, versus November's surplus of $14.5 billion. Gold for February delivery surged $21.10 to $1,629.20 an ounce in electronic trading on Globex. However, February crude-oil futures rose $1.55 to $102.86 a barrel.