US Stock Futures Up Ahead Of Earnings Reports

US stock futures are higher this morning. Futures for the Dow Jones Industrial Average surged 40 points to 12,969.00 and S&P 500 index futures rose 3.10 points to 1,362.80. Nasdaq 100 futures gained 1.75 points to 2,583.75. US stocks closed mixed on Friday, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average gaining 0.35% to 12,949.87, the S&P 500 index rising 0.23% to 1,361.23 and the Nasdaq 100 index dropping 0.27% to 2,951.78. The Chicago Fed's national activity index for January will be released at 8:30 a.m. ET. Macy's Inc M is estimated to post its Q4 EPS at $1.65 on revenue of $8.72 billion. Home Depot Inc (The) HD is expected to post its Q4 EPS at $0.42 on revenue of $15.50 billion. Wal-Mart Stores Inc WMT is estimated to post its Q4 earnings at $1.46 per share on sales of $123.92 billion. Kraft Foods Inc KFT is projected to post its Q4 earnings at $0.57 per share on revenue of $14.8 billion. Radioshack Corporation RSH is projected to post its Q4 EPS at $0.12 on revenue of $1.39 billion. Medtronic Inc MDT is projected to post its Q3 EPS at $0.84 on revenue of $3.99 billion. Barnes & Noble Inc BKS is estimated to post its Q3 EPS at $0.92 on revenue of $2.53 billion. Boyd Gaming Corp BYD is projected to post a Q4 loss at $0.01 per share on revenue of $595.9 million. Nabors Industries Ltd NBR is expected to post its Q4 EPS at $0.50 on revenue of $1.72 billion. Nordstrom Inc JWN lifted the quarterly dividend by 17% to $0.27 per share. The company' board authorized an $800 million share buyback program. The Blackstone Group LP BX has reportedly ended talks to buy Brocade Communication Systems Inc BRCD. European markets were lower today. The STOXX Europe 600 Index dropped 0.48%, London's FTSE 100 Index moved down 0.27%, French CAC 40 index fell 0.54% and German DAX 30 index dropped 0.48%. Asian markets ended mostly higher, with Japan's Nikkei Stock Average dropping 0.23%, China's Shanghai Composite rising 0.75% and Australia's S&P/ASX 200 moving up 0.82%. Hong Kong's Hang Seng index rose 0.25% and India's Sensex surged 0.76%. Nymex oil futures gained $1.33 a barrel to $104.57 in electronic trade. The euro gained 0.2% versus the US dollar to trade at $1.3234. The dollar gained 0.2% versus the Japanese yen to trade at 79.79 yen.