Wall Street is expected to open nearly unchanged on Wednesday as oil prices resumed their rise and investors focus on U.S. durable goods data for last month for clues to the economy's health. In corporate news, Motorola will be watched after the world's second-largest mobile phone maker and NTT DoCoMo Inc. <9437.T>, Japan's top mobile phone operator, said they would jointly develop third-generation handsets. The deal gives Motorola a way into a market largely out of reach for foreign manufacturers. Shares of Boeing Co may also move after Singapore Airlines Ltd. , the world's second-largest airline by market value, said it had signed a letter of intent to order up to 31 Boeing planes worth about $7.35 billion. The market may react to news that security officials in Russia are investigating the possibility of a terrorist act in the crashes of two Russian passenger planes late on Tuesday which killed all 90 on board the two planes. S&P 500 futures were up 1.9 points, above fair value accounting for dividends, interest rates and time to expiration on the contract.
Dow Jones industrial index futures were up 8 points, while Nasdaq 100 futures inched up by a half point. The markets are likely to stay quiet over the next week or two, with many traders away on summer vacation and the Republican National Convention scheduled in New York for Aug. 30-Sept. 2. "With August vacations and the convention, I think we'll see a trendless market for a while. The key factor is still the direction of oil," said Barry Hyman, equity market strategist for Ehrenkrantz King Nussbaum. U.S. light crude gained 14 cents to $45.35 a barrel on concerns about attacks on Iraq's pipelines, breaking a three-day fall in prices. Investors are concerned that a runaway rise in oil prices would crimp corporate profits and hit economic growth. The first of two economic reports due out Wednesday morning is the U.S. government's data for July durable goods orders at 8:30 a.m. (1230 GMT). Orders for big-ticket items likely continued to rise in July, thanks largely to a surge in orders for transportation and defense-related goods, a poll showed. July's new home sale figures will be released at 10 a.m. (1400 GMT), with analysts expecting the numbers to dip. Among stock movers, shares of H&R Block , the largest U.S. tax preparation firm, fell in after-hours trading on Tuesday. The company posted a first-quarter loss, compared with a year-ago profit, as higher interest rates shrank margins in its mortgage lending unit. Shares fell to $47.60 on the INET electronic brokerage from Tuesday's close at $51.23. On Tuesday, the Dow Jones industrial average <.DJI> closed up 0.25 percent at 10,098.63 points, while the Nasdaq Composite Index <.IXIC> was off 0.10 percent at 1,836.89 points.///