U.S. stocks are seen rebounding on Friday from recent declines after General Electric Co. posted a profit that beat expectations by a penny. The news from GE, whose businesses range from jet engines and appliances to medical devices and the NBC network, is expected to offset concerns of higher oil prices. Rising oil prices, which jumped to more than $40 a barrel for the first time in more than a month on Thursday and remained there in electronic trading on Friday, have stoked concerns that profit growth will slow in the future. "GE earnings were pretty good and obviously the fact they beat by a penny and they are specifically saying it's one of the best economies in years, will relieve some of the market fears that earnings may have peaked," said Peter Cardillo, chief market analyst at S.W. Back & Co. S&P 500 futures for the September contract rose 3.5 points to 1114.20, or 6 points above fair value indicating the underlying index may rise 0.6 percent at the open, accounting for dividends, interest rates and time to expiration on the contract.
Dow Jones industrial index futures rose 34 points, while Nasdaq 100 futures gained 8 points. Concerns about corporate profitability have weighed on stocks in recent days following a succession of profit warnings and soft outlooks, particularly from the technology sector. General Electric, though, on Friday posted second-quarter earnings of 38 cents a share, better than the 37 cents consensus estimate, amid order growth and as strength across many of the conglomerate's industrial and finance businesses offset deal-related costs. Jeffrey Immelt, GE chairman, also said that the economy is the best the company has seen in years.
TRUCKER TO RALLY
Trucking company Yellow Roadway Corp. may rally after it said second-quarter earnings would beat forecasts it gave in June. Yellow's shares rose on the INET electronic brokerage system after Thursday's close on the Nasdaq. Elsewhere, Longs Drug Stores may fall after reporting June same-store sales below its expectations. Software maker Computer Associates International Inc. may fall after it said its quarterly revenue fell short of expectations on softness in its services business and lower subscription sales. Its shares fell from its on New York Stock Exchange close in after-hours trading on INET on Thursday. Newmont Mining Corp. is also expected to fall after it said it would restate its 2002, 2003 and first-quarter 2004 cash-flow statements, citing an error. Shares of data storage systems company Storage Technology Corp. may fall after it warned of disappointing results for the second quarter, citing an unexpected decline in orders in the last two weeks of the quarter. U.S. stocks fell to their lowest levels in about six weeks on Thursday as disappointing outlooks from Internet company Yahoo Inc. and software maker Siebel Systems Inc. spurred a sell-off in the technology sector.///