U.S. stocks are gearing up for a higher opening Friday, with likely strong gains for the Dow Jones Industrial Average due to upgrades for Intel and ExxonMobil. The December futures contract for the Dow Jones Industrials was up 33 points at 10,630. The futures contracts for the S&P 500 and the Nasdaq 100 were up 4.2 points at 1,237.70, and 5.5 points at 1,605, respectively. On Thursday stocks closed mixed, following lower closes for all the major averages on Tuesday and Wednesday, amid the early impact of Friday's "quadruple witching" expirations of September futures and options contracts. Expirations-linked volatility is likely to continue Friday. Some analysts attributed the sluggish trade earlier in the week to hesitance to drive share prices up further following recent gains. They also noted caution ahead of next week's Federal Reserve decision on interest rates. The futures contracts held firm after news from the Commerce Department that the current account deficit narrowed by 1.5% to $195.7 billion in the second quarter. The deficit amounted to 6.3% of gross domestic product. Although the deficit narrowed, it still was the second-highest on record. Later in the morning investors will view the University of Michigan's consumer confidence survey for September. According to a MarketWatch poll of economists, the survey should show a drop in the headline figure to 85.1 from 89.1 last month.