wall st. may say so what

Wall St. may say 'So what'
Despite a new oil record and more violence in the Middle East, stocks poised to open higher ahead of GE earnings, retail sales reading.
July 14 2006: 6:06 AM EDT


NEW YORK (CNNMoney) -- U.S. stocks were poised for a positive open Friday, even though oil set another intraday record high above $78 a barrel and violence between Hezbollah and Israel escalated.

At 6:03 a.m. ET, S&P and Nasdaq futures pointed to a positive start for the major indexes.

Oil reached as high as $78.40 a barrel in electronic trading early Friday, before retreating more than a dollar, as Israel aircraft bombed a runway at Beirut's airport in its campaign against Hezbollah militants.

At 6:03 a.m. ET, U.S. light crude was up 69 cents to $77.39 a barrel after setting a settlement record of $76.70 Thursday. Brent crude in London was up 58 cents at $77.27.

One thing that could lift U.S. stocks is results from General Electric (Charts), the No. 2 company in terms of market capitalization. The diversified manufacturing, finance and media conglomerate is forecast to post a 7 cent gain in earnings per share to 47 cents, despite lower revenue.

The higher oil prices were weighing on overseas stock markets, though. Major markets in Asia closed lower after the Bank of Japan raised interest rates to 0.25 percent, although the central bank there added that low interest rates would probably be maintained for some time.

Major European indexes were also lower in early trading.

Treasury prices were higher, with the 10-year note yield slipping to 5.06 percent from 5.07 percent late Thursday. The dollar was higher against the euro and the yen following the BOJ move.

Economic reports due Friday include the government's reading on June retail sales. Economists surveyed by Briefing.com forecast a 0.4 percent gain in the month after a 0.1 percent rise in May. Excluding auto sales, economists expect a 0.3 percent increase, slower than the 0.5 percent increase in that measure.

Also due at 8:30 a.m. ET is a report on import and export prices, while after the market open investors and analysts will get the latest University of Michigan consumer confidence survey and the government's business inventory reading.

In other corporate news, shares of General Motors (Charts) fell 4 percent in European trading after Carlos Ghosn, the CEO of Nissan (Charts) and Renault, said he did not want to be CEO of GM even if the three companies reach an agreement on an alliance with joint ownership of each other others' shares. Ghosn first revealed his lack of interest in the GM post in an interview with CNN and CNNMoney.com.