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Midday report

U.S. Stock Futures Are Little Changed After Alcoa Results

U.S. stock-index futures were little changed, following yesterday’s gain by the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index, as Alcoa Inc. (AA) started the quarterly earnings season by posting profit that exceeded estimates.

Alcoa advanced 3.1 percent in early New York trading after forecasting that global demand for aluminum will exceed production this year. Intuitive Surgical Inc. slumped 9.1 percent after predicting that first-quarter revenue will decline by more than a fifth.

Futures on the S&P 500 expiring in June gained less than 0.1 percent to 1,846 at 7:23 a.m. in New York, while contracts on the Dow Jones Industrial Average added 24 points, or 0.2 percent, to 16,204 today.

“Alcoa has kicked off the reporting season with its first quarter numbers,” Richard Hunter, head of equities at Hargreaves Lansdown Plc in London, wrote in an e-mail. “The market’s recent lackluster performance offers the potential of something of a recovery. This will largely depend on improving U.S. economic data and, in particular, the strength of the corporate updates in the next few weeks.”

The S&P 500 rose 0.4 percent yesterday as technology shares dragged the index higher. The benchmark had retreated 2.4 percent in the previous three-day period.

The Federal Reserve releases the minutes of its March 18-19 meeting at 2 p.m. today. Officials dropped the link between interest rates and a specific level of employment at that gathering. The Federal Open Market Committee said it would look at indicators including labor-market conditions, inflation expectations and financial markets.