U.S. stocks were gearing up for a higher opening Friday with investors expected to seek out bargains after recent declines while a UBS upgrade of Coca-Cola Inc. should boost the Dow Jones Industrial Average. The futures contracts for the Dow industrials, the S&P 500 and the Nasdaq 100 were all pointing toward gains in the early minutes of trade. Stocks closed mixed Thursday after an uneven session in which weaker crude -oil futures failed to cause stocks to rally. Trading could be choppy given monthly options expirations. "The major market indices have fallen to those support levels we were looking at earlier this week," Marc Pado, U.S. market strategist at Cantor Fitzgerald said. "The Dow is challenging its 200-day moving average, which has moved up to 10,534. The S & P broke through the 1220 support and is trying to hold its 10-week moving average at 1218.73. The NASDAQ's April through July uptrend line crossed the price action at 2140 and is attempting to hold its 10-week MA at 2130." "We fell to these key support levels quickly over the past few days, creating a short-term oversold condition," Pado said." However, if this is a new corrective trend, then a slight oversold (condition) is just the beginning." Crude futures have been a drag on the major averages ever since they struck a record high of $67 a barrel last week. The September contract last was up $1.09 at $64.36, rising on worries about production in Ecuador and news that Merrill Lynch raised its 2005 forecast for Brent oil by 10% to $55 a barrel and for light sweet crude by 10% to $56 a barrel. Merrill also lifted its 2006 forecast for Brent by 25% to $51 and for light sweet crude by 25% to $52 a barrel. There are no economic data Friday to lend direction to the Treasury market and Action Economics predicts that fixed-income market trading will be thin. The benchmark 10-year Treasury note last was down 3/32 at 100-8/32 with a yield of 4.218%. The dollar was mixed, trading down 0.06% at 110.46 yen, while the euro rose 0.03% to $1.2179.