US Stock Futures Down; McDonald's, Johnson & Johnson In Focus

US stock futures are lower this morning, as investors are awaiting quarterly earnings. Futures for the Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped 43 points to 12,607.00 and S&P 500 index futures fell 6.60 points to 1,304.50. Nasdaq 100 futures declined 8.50 points to 2,426.50. US stocks closed mostly flat on Monday, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average dropping 0.09% to 12,708.82, the S&P 500 index gaining 0.05% to 1,316.00 and the Nasdaq 100 index dropping 0.09% to 2,784.17. McDonald's Corp MCD is projected to report its Q4 earnings at $1.30 per share on sales of $6.81 billion. Yahoo! Inc YHOO is expected to post its Q4 EPS at $0.24 on revenue of $1.19 billion. Verizon Communications Inc VZ is expected to post its Q4 earnings at $0.53 per share on sales of $28.4 billion. Johnson & Johnson JNJ is projected to post its Q4 EPS at $1.09 on revenue of $16.28 billion. EMC Corporation EMC is estimated to post its Q4 EPS at $0.46 on revenue of $5.49 billion. Air Products & Chemicals Inc APD is expected to post its FQ1 earnings at $1.36 per share on revenue of $2.52 billion. Coach Inc COH is projected to post its FQ2 earnings at $1.15 per share on revenue of $1.43 billion. KeyCorp KEY is estimated to report its Q4 earnings at $0.20 per share on revenue of $1 billion. Apple Inc AAPL is exp to post its Q1 EPS at $10.08 on revenue of $38.85 billion. Texas Instruments Incorporated TXN reported upbeat quarterly revenue. Western Digital Corp WDC reported its FQ2 profit at $145 million, or $0.61 per share, on revenue of $2 billion. However, analysts were expecting earnings of $0.65 per share on revenue of $1.83 billion. European markets were lower today. The STOXX Europe 600 Index dropped 0.95%, London's FTSE 100 Index moved down 0.78%, French CAC 40 index fell 0.98% and German DAX 30 index dropped 1.05%. Asian markets ended mostly higher, with Japan's Nikkei Stock Average rising 0.1458% and Australia's S&P/ASX 200 moving down 0.03%. India's Sensex gained 1.46%. The euro dropped 0.08% against the dollar to trade at $1.3005, down from $1.3021 in late North American trade on Monday. The dollar index (DXY) gained 0.11% to 79.89, up from 79.777 in North American trade late Monday. Crude-oil futures for March delivery dropped $0.34 to $99.24 a barrel, versus $99.58 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange on Monday.