Futures Pointing To Early Strength On Wall Street

(RTTNews) - Following the volatility seen last week, stocks are likely to move to the upside in early trading on Monday. The major index futures are currently pointing to a higher open for the markets, with the Dow futures up by 45 points.

The upward momentum for the markets may partly reflect optimism about the upcoming earnings reporting season.

Aluminum giant Alcoa (AA) is set to unofficially kick off the earnings season with the release of its fourth quarter results after the close of today's trading.

On average, analysts expect Alcoa to report fourth quarter earnings of $0.33 per share on revenues of $5.99 billion.

Financial giants JP Morgan (JPM), Wells Fargo (WFC), Bank of America (BAC), Citigroup (C) and Goldman Sachs (GS) are among the companies due to report their quarterly results later in the week.

Economic data may also attract some attention later in the week, with traders likely to keep a close eye on reports on retail sales, industrial production, and producer and consumer price inflation.

However, since there is no major U.S. economic data scheduled to be released today, trading activity may be somewhat subdued.