* Alcoa to unofficially start earnings season after the bell
* U.S. wholesale inventories data on tap
* Futures up: Dow 44 pts, S&P; 1.9 pts, Nasdaq 9.5 pts
NEW YORK, April 10 (Reuters) – U.S. stock index futures
edged up on Tuesday as S&P; 500 futures found support near their
50-day moving average following four days of losses on the
benchmark index.
* Trade data from China reinforced the view the world’s
second-largest economy will avoid a hard landing, giving
investors some respite after a string of losses in equity
markets.
* Dow component Alcoa Inc, a bellwether for the
industrial sector, kick-starts the quarterly earnings season
after the closing bell.
* Economic data on Tuesday include wholesale inventories for
February, due at 10 a.m. EDT (1400 GMT). Economists in a Reuters
survey forecast a 0.5 percent rise versus a gain of 0.4 percent
in January.
* S&P; 500 futures rose 1.9 points and were slightly
above fair value, a formula that evaluates pricing by taking
into account interest rates, dividends and time to expiration on
the contract. Dow Jones industrial average futures rose
44 points, and Nasdaq 100 futures added 9.5 points.
* European markets were catching up with global equity
losses after being closed Friday and Monday, with stocks
down 1 percent.
* China returned to an export-led trade surplus of $5.35
billion in March, suggesting that a rebound in the global
economy is lifting overseas orders just in time to compensate
for a slowdown in domestic demand.
* A Reuters poll on Monday showed most major Wall Street
firms expect anemic growth in the U.S. jobs market and a
struggling economic recovery to force the Federal Reserve to
undertake another round of monetary stimulus.
* Recent losses in the U.S. stock market were sparked by
minutes from the Fed’s March policy meeting that were
interpreted as showing the central bank was less than keen to
launch more stimulus.
* U.S.-traded shares of Sony Corp dropped 8 percent
to $18.50 in light premarket trading after the company forecast
a record $6.4 billion net loss for the business year just ended.
* The Dow and the S&P; 500 extended losses to a fourth day on
Monday, as investors took their cues from last week’s
disappointing jobs report, which raised fresh concerns about the
U.S. economic recovery.
