Wall Street was poised to open higher on Monday amid upbeat reports from the techology sector, as investors look to consolidate gains in the last week of trading before Christmas.
Two hours before the opening bell, Dow Jones Industrial Average futures were up 0.4 per cent to 10,712.00, S&P 500 futures were up 0.3 per cent to 1,202.00, and Nasdaq 100 futures were up 0.4 per cent to 1618.00.
The three leading US indices have put in a strong performance this year, boosted by a rally that began in late October and gained steam in November in the wake of the US presidential election.
A quiet week is expected on Wall Street this week, however, as look to the the first sessions of post-Christmas trading for signs that the markets will shake off their traditional mid-December sluggishness to end the year on a high note.
Technology stocks were the focus of pre-market trading on Monday, after the chief executive of Nokia told the Financial Times that he was confident that the market for mobile phones would grow by 10 per cent in 2005. Nokia’s US-listed shares rose 0.7 per cent to $15.26.
Shares in Motorola , a key Nokia competitor, were unchanged at $17.00.
Intel was also in the spotlight after JP Morgan raised its profit forecast, sending shares in the world’s leading computer chip company up 0.5 per cent to $22.77. Advanced Micro Devices , Intel’s chief rival, rose 0.7 per cent to $22.59.
Pfizer edged up 0.2 per cent to $25.80 in pre-market trading, after the drugs group said it would halt advertising for Celebrex, its leading arthiritis drug. Shares in Pfizer fell 11 per cent on Friday after a clinical study showed that Celebrex increased the risk of heart attacks in patients.
McAfee, the anti-virus software group, fell 6.7 per cent to $27.01 after Microsoft announced it had chosen another company to provide virus-scanning services to customers of its hotmail email network. Shares in Trend Micro, the Japanese company Microsoft chose to replace McAfee, rose 3.3 per cent to $52.16 on Inet.
Taser International , the stun gun maker, rose 4.6 per cent to $28.48 after the company revealed a deal to supply 1,000 new stun guns to Davidson’s, a firearms distributor.