stopping the bleeding Stopping the bleedingAfter taking another...

stopping the bleeding Stopping the bleeding
After taking another drubbing, investors look to get back in market; Dell earnings support; oil inches toward $70.
May 19, 2006: 8:13 AM EDT


NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) - Stocks looked set for a positive opening Friday as Dell's earnings lifted sentiment and as investors recovered from a sharp selloff in the market.

U.S. stock futures were up in early trading, indicating a higher open for U.S. markets.



Round Rock, Texas-based Dell reported after the market close Thursday earnings and sales in line with a lowered forecast the company issued last week. (Full story.)

The company earned 33 cents a share in its fiscal first quarter, down 11 percent from the same period last year. Revenues rose to $14.2 billion, a 6 percent gain from the year-earlier quarter.

The PC maker also announced it would cut prices and improve customer service to stimulate growth. Dell also said it would introduce servers running on AMD chips for the first time after previously only using Intel (Research) chips.

AMD (Research) shares surged 10 percent in premarket trading Friday and Dell (Research) shares gained more than 3 percent.

After this week's sharp selloff, investors look set to jump back into the market. The blue-chip Dow Jones industrial average has lost more than 300 points in the past three sessions and the tech-fueled Nasdaq is on an eight-session losing streak, its longest since September 1994.

No major economic reports are due.

In corporate news, a criminal investigation into potential stock-option abuses widened Thursday to include pharmacy benefits manager Caremark Rx Inc. (Research), health insurer UnitedHealth Group (Research), software firm SafeNet (Research) and IT outsourcing firm Affiliated Computer Services (Research). (Full story.)

Oil prices inched their way toward $70 a barrel.

The June light crude futures contract for NYMEX rose 26 cents to $69.71 a barrel in electronic trading, while the July contract for Brent crude gained 21 cents to $69.88.

Major markets in Asia closed mixed Friday. Major European markets were also mixed in midday trading.

Treasury prices were slightly lower, raising the yield on the benchmark 10-year note to 5.09 percent, up from 5.08 percent late Thursday. The dollar was higher against the yen and the euro.

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