Wall Street moves toward higher open

Wall Street moves toward higher open

	Published : Thu, 18 Oct 2007 12:09 By : Agencies Print this Story

NEW YORK (AP) - Wall Street moved toward a slightly higher open Thursday ahead of another batch of third-quarter earnings reports and data that will likely show regional manufacturing is slowing.

Investors will examine earnings reports from Bank of America Corp., Bank of New York Mellon Corp., Google Inc., and Pfizer Inc. About 60 members of the Standard & Poor's 500 index have reported quarterly results so far this week.

The market will also be looking at economic data, the Philadelphia Federal Reserve's October manufacturing index, being released at noon EDT. The report is expected to show a slowdown in growth for the regional economy.

Wall Street finished mixed on Wednesday after several economic reports raised concerns about the housing sector, and as oil prices continued to rise. There was also an overall uneasiness about how well corporate earnings will fare in coming quarters.

Dow Jones industrial average futures rose 17.00, or 0.04 percent, to 13,984. S&P index futures rose 1.20, or 0.08 percent, to 1,553.60. Nasdaq 100 index futures rose 5.00, or 0.23 percent, to 2,201.75.

Late Wednesday, eBay Inc. reported a third-quarter loss due to a write-off of its investment in telephony carrier Skype. However, excluding that charge, results surpassed Wall Street projections.

E-Trade Financial Corp. shares might tumble after it reported an unexpected loss. The discount brokerage took a $200 million write-down linked to mortgage-related investments.

SAP AG shares will likely rise after the business-software applications company reported a 10 percent rise in profit. Results were helped by increased license sales.

Oil prices pulled back, but was expected to move higher during the regular session on market speculation over a possible attack by Turkey on Kurdish rebels in Northern Iraq. Light, sweet crude for November delivery fell 5 cents to $87.35 a barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange.

Overseas, Japan's Nikkei stock average closed up 0.89 percent. Britain's FTSE 100 fell 0.25 percent, Germany's DAX index rose 0.15 percent, and France's CAC-40 fell 0.28 percent.