US Stock Futures Signal Higher Start On Wall Street, Alcoa Reports Upbeat Quarterly Earnings

US stock futures are higher this morning, after Alcoa Inc AA reported better-than-expected quarterly earnings. Futures on the Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 37 points to 11,624.00 and S&P 500 futures rose 3.90 points to 1,269.40. Nasdaq 100 futures surged 6.50 points to 2,289.00. US stocks closed lower yesterday, with the Dow index dropping 37.31 points, or 0.32%. No major US economic data are due for release today. After the Monday's closing bell, Alcoa Inc reported its Q4 net income at $0.24 per share, versus a loss of $0.27 per share, in the year-ago period. The company's sales surged 4% y/y to $5.6 billion. Apollo Group Inc APOL reported its Q1 earnings at $1.61 per share, up from $1.54 per share, in the year-ago period. The company's revenue rose to $1.33 billion from $1.26 billion in the year-ago quarter. Lennar Corp LEN reported its Q4 EPS at $0.17, beating the consensus of $0.02. LEN reported its Q4 revenue at $860.1 million, versus the estimates of $759.62 million. Positive sentiment ruled the European markets today. While STOXX Europe 600 Index has advanced 0.98%, London's FTSE 100 Index moved up 1.19%. Asian markets ended mixed, with Japan's Nikkei Stock Average dropping 0.29%, Australia's S&P/ASX 200 moving down 0.08% and China's Shanghai Composite gaining 0.44%. Oil futures dropped $0.13 to $89.12 per barrel in electronic trading on Globex. However, gold futures gained $6.90 to $1,381 an ounce. The dollar index (DXY) gained 0.02% to 80.90. The euro fell 0.2% to $1.2923, while the British pound dropped 0.3% to $1.5533. Read more from Benzinga's Markets.