By Joanne Frearson LONDON, Nov 4 (Reuters) - U.S. futures pointed to a higher start on Wall Street on Tuesday as Democrat Barack Obama and Republican John McCain face the verdict of U.S. voters. Futures for the Dow Jones industrial average DJc1, the Nasdaq 100 DNc1 and the S&P 500 SPc1 share indexes were up 1.75-2 percent. Obama leads McCain in five of eight key battleground states as Americans vote in the White House race, according to a series of Reuters/Zogby polls released on Tuesday. [ID:nN04371942] "A lot hinges on the flavour of what the stimulus (from Obama) is. If it's going to be just tax cuts, in which case people are going to look at some of the discretionary end of the consumer spend. People could say that potentially leisure and retail could do well," said Philip Lawlor, chief portfolio strategist at Nomura, London. "My read is that it's going to be a big package of $150 billion but it's much more skewed towards infrastructure, in which case once the legislation starts to come through people will realise this has to be beneficial for the construction stocks and material stocks," he said. "If it were for McCain and the Republicans, they would write a $5,000 cheque to each household and say it's up to you on how you are going to spend it. Obviously, the market would then say even if they save half of that, it's still going to be a lot of money that can go into additional consumption expenditure and durables," added Lawlor. At least 130 million Americans are expected to cast votes on a successor to unpopular Republican President George W. Bush and set the country's course for the next four years on the economic crisis, wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, an overhaul of health care and other issues. [ID:nN04356344] The first polls begin to close in parts of Indiana and Kentucky at 6 p.m. EST (2300 GMT) on Tuesday. Voting ends over the next six hours in the other 48 states. In earnings news investors are likely to focus on full October same-store sales from Walgreen (WAG.N: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz), third-quarter results from Papa John's International (PZZA.O: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) and fourth-quarter resutls from Emerson Electric (EMR.N: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz). Meanwhile, in after hours trading MasterCard (MA.N: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) shares jumped nearly 5 percent to $150.92 on Monday after the credit card company's third-quarter results beat analyst expectations. Viacom (VIAb.N: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) stock jumped 4 percent to $20.8 in after-hours trade on Monday after the media company's third-quarter profit beat expectations. Shares of Principal Financial Group (PFG.N: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) dropped 8.2 percent to $20.55 in after-hours trade after the life insurer posted its third-quarter results. U.S. stocks ended little changed on Monday as investors picked up bargains on signs of further easing in the credit markets, but were unwilling to place big bets before the presidential election. On Monday, the Dow Jones industrial average .DJI ended down 0.06 percent, the Standard & Poor's index .SPX was off 0.25 percent and Nasdaq Composite index .IXIC added 0.31 percent. (Additional reporting by Dominic Lau; Editing by David Cowell)

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