US Stock Futures Signal Higher Start On Wall Street

US stock futures are higher this morning. Standard & Poor's downgraded Italy's credit rating by one notch to A. Futures for the Dow Jones Industrial Average surged 86 points to 11,409.00 and S&P 500 index futures rose 9.20 points to 1,207.00. Nasdaq 100 futures jumped 22.75 points to 2,323.75. US stocks closed lower on Monday, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average dropping 0.94% to 11,401.01, the S&P 500 index declining 0.98% to 1,204.09 and the Nasdaq 100 index dipping 0.36% to 2,612.83. Data on August housing starts will be released at 8:30 a.m. ET. The Federal Open Market Committee will begin its 2-day meeting in Washington. Adobe Systems Incorporated ADBE is estimated to report its Q3 EPS at $0.54 on revenue of $1.03 billion. ConAgra Foods Inc CAG is projected to report its Q1 EPS at $0.31 on revenue of $2.95 billion. Carnival Plc CUK is estimated to report its Q3 EPS at $1.64 on revenue of $4.9 billion. AutoZone Inc AZO is expected to report its Q4 EPS at $6.98 on revenue of $2.61 billion. Oracle Corporation ORCL is projected to report its Q1 EPS at $0.47 on revenue of $8.36 billion. Kona Grill KONA raised its third-quarter financial forecast. Newcastle Investment Corp NCT announced its plans to sell 22.5 million common shares. European markets were higher today. The STOXX Europe 600 Index rose 0.41%, London's FTSE 100 Index moved up 1.36%, French CAC 40 index rose 0.16% and German DAX 30 index gained 1%. Asian markets ended mixed, with Japan's Nikkei Stock Average dipping 1.6123%, Australia's S&P/ASX 200 moving down 0.94% and China's Shanghai Composite rising 0.41%. Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index gained 0.5120% and India's Sensex surged 2.30%. The dollar index (DXY) fell 0.5% to 76.965. The euro surged 0.7% versus the greenback to trade at $1.3705. Crude oil for October delivery climbed $1.09 to $86.79 a barrel in electronic trading on Globex.