Futures Rise on EU Budget Pact; Pfizer and Exxon Mobil Earnings in Focus

The Dow Jones industrial Average (DJIA) headed for a positive open this morning, as Wall Street cheers a euro-zone pact for tougher budget rules and progress on Greece�s debt issues. Heading into the open, U.S. stock futures on the Dow Mini are trading about 53 points above fair value, while S&P 500 Index (SPX) futures are 5.5 points above fair value. Nasdaq Mini (NDX) futures are indicating a gain of about 8.4 points on the open.

Strong earnings performances are also providing lift for the Dow, with Pfizer (PFE) gaining about 1% in pre-market trading. Pfizer reported that fourth-quarter adjusted earnings of 50 cents per share as sales dipped to $16.75 billion. The blue-chip pharma giant also lowered its full-year outlook.

Meanwhile, Exxon Mobile (XOM) shares slipped 0.6% ahead of the open after the oil baron posted a fourth-quarter profit of $9.4 billion, or $1.97 per share, as sales rose 35% to $41.1 billion in 2011.

Elsewhere on the earnings front, Lexmark (LXK), Mattel (MAT), U.S. Steel (X), United Parcel Service (UPS), Amazon.com (AMZN), Broadcom (BRCM), and Seagate Technologies (STX) are scheduled to release their quarterly reports.

Call volume narrowly edged out puts volume on the Chicago Board Options Exchange (CBOE) on Monday, as traders reacted to an early plunge in equities. Overall, 1.6 million calls and 1.5 million puts changed hands, resulting in a single-session CBOE total put/call volume ratio of 0.92. The reading was up slightly from Friday�s reading of 0.88.

Index puts extended their dominance on the CBEO, with exchange�s single-session index put/call volume ratio arriving at 1.31. Alternately, the CBOE equity put/call volume ratio rebounded to a reading of 0.68 from Friday�s perch at 0.60.

Option volume on the CBOE Volatility Index (VIX) grew increasingly call heavy on Monday, as speculation for continued market weakness grew. The single-session VIX CBOE put/call volume ratio came in at 0.36, with calls nearly tripling puts on the session. As I have noted here before, VIX calls are often utilized by investors as a broad hedge against market weakness.