US stock futures are lower this morning. Alcoa Inc (NYSE:

) is all set to report its quarterly results after the closing bell today. Futures on the Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped 39 points to 11,580.00 and S&P 500 index futures fell 6.50 points to 1,261.50. Nasdaq 100 futures fell 7.75 points to 2,265.25. US stocks closed lower on Friday, with the blue-chip Dow index dropping 22.55 points, or 0.19%. No major economic data are due to be released today. Analysts are expecting Alcoa to have earned $0.18 per share in the fourth quarter. Apollo Group Inc (NASDAQ:

) is expected to post its FQ1 EPS at $1.35. DuPont (NYSE:

) announced its plans to buy Denmark's Danisco for $6.3 billion. Negative sentiments ruled the European markets today. While STOXX Europe 600 Index has dropped 0.70%, London's FTSE 100 Index moved down 0.50%. Asian markets ended mixed, with Japan's Nikkei Stock Average adding 0.11%, Australia's S&P/ASX 200 moving up 0.14% and China's Shanghai Composite dropping 1.66%. Crude-oil futures rose, with the February crude futures gaining $0.53 to $88.56 per barrel in electronic trading on Globex. Gold futures were trading at $1,367.80 an ounce. The US dollar was higher versus its major rivals, with the dollar index (DXY) gaining about 0.09%. Read more