US Stock Futures Slightly Up; Google Shares Surge In Pre-Market

US stock futures are slightly higher this morning, after Google Inc GOOG reported upbeat Q2 results. Standard & Poor's puts the US credit rating on review for a possible downgrade. Futures on the Dow Jones Industrial Average surged 32 points to 12,414.00 and futures on the S&P 500 stock index rose 2.10 points to 1,308.80. Nasdaq 100 futures gained 4.50 points to 2,338.50. US stocks closed lower on Thursday, with the Dow Jones industrial average dropping 0.44% to 12,437.12, the broader Standard & Poor's 500 index declining 0.67% to 1,308.87 and the NASDAQ composite index dipping 1.22% to 2,762.67. Data on June consumer price inflation and the New York Fed's Empire State index for July will be released at 8:30 a.m. ET. Data on industrial production for June will be released at 9:15 a.m. ET. However, consumer sentiment readings will be released around 10 a.m. ET. Citigroup Inc C to report its Q2 EPS at $0.97 on revenue of $19.94 billion. First Horizon National Corp FHN is expected to report its Q2 EPS at $0.11 on revenue of $364.74 million. Shares of Google jumped about 12.4% in pre-market trading after the company reported its second-quarter profit at $2.51 billion, or $7.68 per share, up from $1.84 billion, or $5.71 per share, in the year-ago period. Its revenue came in at $6.92 billion. Excluding items, Google's earnings came in at $8.74 per share. Analysts were expecting earnings of $7.84 per share on revenue of $6.54 billion. Asian markets ended mixed, with Japan's Nikkei Stock Average gaining 0.3860%, Australia's S&P/ASX 200 moving down 0.41% and China's Shanghai Composite rising 0.35%. Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index fell 0.2954% and India's Sensex dropped 0.31%. European markets were mostly lower today. The STOXX Europe 600 Index has dipped 0.27%, London's FTSE 100 Index moved up 0.01%, German DAX 30 index fell 0.28% and France CAC 40 index fell 0.29%. The euro gained 0.15% against the dollar to trade at $1.4165, versus $1.4139 in North American trade late Thursday. The dollar dropped 0.01% against the Japanese yen to trade at 79.13 yen, versus ¥79.15 late Thursday. Nymex crude oil futures dropped $0.12 at $95.57 a barrel in electronic trade. However, gold futures dropped $8.80 to $1.580.50 an ounce.