US Stock Futures Flat Ahead Of Mastercard Earnings, Economic Data

US stock futures are mostly flat this morning, as investors are awaiting earnings from Mastercard MA and economic data. Futures for the Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped 4 points to 13,834.00 and S&P 500 index futures fell 1 point to 1,494.30. Nasdaq 100 futures declined 7.25 points to 2,728.50. US stocks closed lower on Wednesday, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average dropping 0.32% to 13,910.42, the S&P 500 index falling 0.39% to 1,501.96 and the Nasdaq 100 index declining 0.36% to 3,142.31. Data on weekly jobless claims, consumer-spending and personal-income for December and the employment cost index for the fourth quarter will be released at 8:30 a.m. ET. The Chicago PMI for January will be released at 9:45 a.m. ET. Mastercard is projected to report its Q4 earnings at $4.82 per share on revenue of $1.89 billion. Ball BLL is estimated to report its Q4 earnings at $0.66 per share on revenue of $2.11 billion. Colgate-Palmolive Co CL is expected to report its Q4 earnings at $1.40 per share on revenue of $4.31 billion. The Dow Chemical Company DOW is projected to report its Q4 earnings at $0.34 per share on revenue of $13.70 billion. Nasdaq OMX Group NDAQ is expected to report its Q4 earnings at $0.61 per share on revenue of $412.01 million. Altria Group MO is projected to report its Q4 earnings at $0.55 per share on revenue of $4.33 billion. United Parcel Service UPS is expected to report its Q4 earnings at $1.38 per share on revenue of $14.43 billion. Eastman Chemical Co EMN is estimated to post its Q4 EPS at $1.19 on revenue of $2.24 billion. The Hershey Company HSY is projected to report its Q4 earnings at $0.76 per share on revenue of $1.71 billion. Viacom VIAB is estimated to report its Q1 earnings at $0.90 per share on revenue of $3.49 billion. McKesson MCK is estimated to post its Q3 EPS at $1.63 on revenue of $30.81 billion. Time Warner Cable TWC is estimated to report its Q4 earnings at $1.55 per share on revenue of $5.50 billion. Facebook FB reported upbeat fourth-quarter results. Qualcomm QCOM reported better-than-expected first-quarter earnings and revenue. The company also lifted its forecast for 2013. European markets were lower today. The STOXX Europe 600 Index fell 0.29%, London's FTSE 100 Index dropped 0.43%, German DAX 30 Index fell 0.28% and French CAC 40 Index declined 0.65%. Asian markets ended mostly lower, with Japan's Nikkei Stock Average rising 0.22%, China's Shanghai Composite surging 0.12% and Australia's S&P/ASX 200 Index dropping 0.37%. Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index declined 0.39% and India's Sensex dropped 0.55%. Japan's industrial production climbed 2.5% in December, versus a 1.4% drop in November. The ICE dollar index (DXY) gained 0.04% to trade at 79.30. The euro dropped 0.11% versus the dollar to trade at $1.3553, down from $1.3568 on Wednesday. The dollar fell 0.03% against the Japanese yen to trade at ¥ 91.06, from ¥91.13.