Before the bell: Stocks to open lower despite Wal-Mart's beat

There is a light economic calendar today, but it includes weekly initial and continuing jobless claims to be released at 8:30 a.m. Eastern. At 2:00 p.m., the U.S. Federal budget for October will be reported.

Meanwhile, foreclosure data was reported this morning by RealtyTrac Inc.. The number of homeowners on the brink of losing their homes continued to decline in October for the third straight month, as foreclosure prevention programs helped more borrowers. But foreclosure filings are still up 19% from a year ago, reaching more than 332,000 households, or one in every 385 homes. Rising unemployment could threaten the stabilizing trend.

U.S. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner, still in Singapore, said there are "early signs" that the world is addressing imbalances in spending and saving that contributed to the global crisis. While he said that Asia is "leading the world" back to recovery, APEC finance ministers called to reduce reliance on Asian savings and American spending.

There are other concerns, though, that rising oil prices could endanger the global recovery and the recent modest increase in crude demand, the International Energy Agency said Thursday as it raised its outlook for oil demand this year.

Overseas, too, world markets were quiet. Asian stocks mostly finished lower, and European stock markets rose modestly but sentiment was subdued following Asia's performance.

Also in focus this morning are a few deals including Hewlett-Packard's (HPQ) acquisition of networking company 3Com (COMS) for $2.7 billion announced late Wednesday and General Electric's (GE) sale of its security division to United Technologies (UTX) for $1.8 billion.