Stock Futures Edge Higher Ahead of Earnings Wave

Stocks futures are higher Monday, as investors look ahead to a week jam-packed with quarterly reports -- most notably from the banking sector. Fresh off its fourth-straight winning week, Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJIA) futures are up 45 points, while futures on the Nasdaq-100 Index (NDX) and S&P 500 Index (SPX) are also above breakeven.

• Inflation data highlighted a wild week on Wall Street.
• What lies ahead for March's Cinderella ETF?
• Plus, banking giant reports earnings; why MSFT is higher; and bull notes for biotech stock.

5 Things You Need to Know Today

1. The Cboe Options Exchange (CBOE) saw more than 1.2 million call contracts and 835,645 put contracts exchanged on Friday. The single-session equity put/call ratio rose to 0.65 and the 21-day moving average stayed at 0.78.
2. Charles Schwab Corporation (NYSE:SCHW) is down 0.9% before the bell, despite the financial institution announcing better-than-expected first-quarter earnings. Revenue, however, missed analysts' estimates. Charles Schwab stock sports a 39% year-to-date deficit.
3. Microsoft Corp (NASDAQ:MSFT) was last seen up 1.5% ahead on the open on news that Samsung is considering using the company's Bing as its default search engine. Plus, Barclays hiked its price target to $310 from $280. MSFT sports a 19.3% year-to-date lead.
4. Biogen Inc (NASDAQ:BIIB) is up 1.5% premarket after two pre-earnings bull notes. Specifically, Piper Sandler upgraded the biotech stock to "overweight' and hiked its price target to $346, while Wedbush raised its price objective to $263.  Year-over-year, BIIB is up 35.6%.   
5. The Empire State manufacturing index and the home builder confidence index are due out today.

Asian Markets Higher Ahead of China GDP Data

Asian markets kicked off the week with gains, led by a 1.7% pop from Hong Kong’s Hang Seng. China’s Shanghai Composite tacked on 1.4% ahead of the country’s gross domestic product (GDP) data due out tomorrow. Reuters’ poll of economists predicts 4% growth for the fourth quarter. South Korea’s Kospi pared losses to finish 0.2% higher, while Japan’s Nikkei added 0.07%.

Over in Europe, bourses are more mixed. Mining and commodity stocks have London’s FTSE 100 0.2% higher at last check, with International Distributions Service also a notable gainer. The German DAX and French CAC 40 are both off by 0.1%.