Alcoa Leads the Way for U.S. Stock Futures

The earnings season kicked off on Tuesday with the news that U.S. stock futures are rising.

According to Bloomberg, U.S. stock-index futures rose, “indicating the benchmark Standard & Poor's 500 Index will climb for a second day, as the fourth-quarter earnings season began with Alcoa Inc. reporting results that matched estimates.”

Leading the way is Alcoa (NYSE: AA), with the company reporting earnings that matched the estimates.

Bloomberg said that, “Alcoa rose 2.3 percent in pre-market trading. Apple Inc. added 0.9 percent. Schlumberger Ltd., the offshore oil-services company, increased 1 percent as crude climbed for the first time in four days. Futures on the S&P 500 expiring in March gained 1 percent to 1,288 as of 7:31 a.m. in New York. The benchmark equity gauge rose 0.2 percent yesterday, extending last week's rally. Dow Jones Industrial Average futures expiring the same month advanced 106 points, or 0.9 percent, to 12,443 today.”

“Investors are realizing the global macro-economic backdrop is not as weak as commonly perceived, particularly in the U.S. and Asia,” said Graham Bishop, an equity strategist at Royal bank of Scotland Group Plc in London. “There's also more growth-orientated policy responses coming in Europe that may help sentiment.”

Bloomberg concluded with, “U.S. corporations ended 2011 with the slowest profit growth in two years as the mending economy was met by a European slump that vexed companies more tied to global sales. S&P 500 companies, which beat analysts' estimates in the previous 11 quarters, are forecast to report a 6 percent increase in per- share profit for the September-December period, according to projections compiled by Bloomberg News.”

The whole thing provides some much-needed positive news to start the year.