US Stock Futures Signal Lower Start On Wall Street; Alcoa Shares Drop In Pre-Market Trading

US stock futures are lower this morning, as Alcoa Inc AA reported disappointing Q1 sales. Japanese government raised its status of the ongoing crisis at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant to 7. Futures on the Dow Jones Industrial Average dipped 49 points to 12,272.00 and futures on the S&P 500 stock index fell 5.80 points to 1,313.80. Nasdaq 100 futures dropped 10.75 points to 2,297.25. On Monday, the Dow Jones industrial average gained 0.01% to 12,381, the Standard & Poor's 500 Index declined 0.28% to 1,324 and the Nasdaq Composite Index lost 0.32% to 2,772. US trade data for February will be released at 8:30 a.m. ET. Shares of Alcoa Inc dropped about 2.8% in pre-market trading as the company swung to a Q1 profit of $308 million, or $0.27 per share, from a loss of $201 million, or $0.20 per share, in the year-ago period. Excluding special items, the company's earnings came in at $0.28 per share. The company's sales increased to $5.96 billion from $4.89 billion. However, analysts were expecting earnings of $0.27 per share on sales of $6.2 billion. Fastenal Company FAST is projected to report its Q1 EPS at $0.51 on revenue of $629.00 million. Procter & Gamble Company PG reported that its board lifted the quarterly dividend by 9% from 48.2 cents per share to 52.5 cents per share. WMS Industries Inc WMS projects Q3 earnings of $0.40 to $0.42 per share on revenue of $191 million to $193 million. However, analysts expected Q3 earnings of $0.51 per share on revenue of $213.5 million. Asian markets ended lower, with Japan's Nikkei Stock Average dropping 1.69%, Australia's S&P/ASX 200 declining 1.48% and China's Shanghai Composite losing 0.05%. Hong Kong's Hang Seng index fell 1.34%. Negative sentiment ruled the European markets today. While STOXX Europe 600 Index has dropped 1.09%, London's FTSE 100 Index moved down 0.83%. The International Energy Agency (EIA) reported that global oil production dropped by 700,000 barrels a day in March. Supply from the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) declined by 890,000 barrels a day in March. Nymex crude oil futures gained $0.27 to $110.19 a barrel. Against the dollar, the euro gained 0.3049% to $1.4472, versus $1.4445 in North American trade late Monday. However, the greenback fell 0.2% against the Japanese yen. Read more from Benzinga's Markets.