Before the Bell: Wall Street Looking to Extend Gains

Posted Feb 17th 2010 8:13AM by Melly Alazraki
Filed under: Before the Bell, International Markets, Market Matters, Campbell Soup (CPB), Whole Foods Market (WFMI), Economic Data, Deere and Co (DE), Oil

U.S. stock futures advanced Wednesday, pointing to a higher start on Wall Street as investors' optimism was boosted by earnings and a strong performance Tuesday. Investors also await housing and industrial data to get a better picture on the state of the U.S. economy.

On Tuesday, U.S. markets posted their biggest daily percentage gain in three months. Better-than-expected results from several heavyweights, including some banks in Europe, as well as strength in Europe as the sovereign debt concerns subsided somewhat contributed to the strong performance. Strong manufacturing data only served to improve sentiment even more. On Wednesday, investors are looking to extend Tuesday's gains.

Several economic reports are of interest today:

At 8:30 a.m., January housing starts and building permits are due. Economists expect housing starts to have reached an annual rate of 580,000 units in January, according to a Briefing.com. This would be a sizable increase from 557,000 the prior month. Building permits are expected to have declined to 620,000 in January, down from 653,000 the prior month.
At the same time, January import and exports prices are also expected.
At 9:15 a.m., shortly before the opening bell, January data for industrial production and capacity utilization are due. Production is expected to have climbed 0.8% in January, and utilization to have inched up to 72.6%.
Finally, at 2 p.m., the Federal Reserve will release the minutes from its last policy meeting.

Overseas, Asian stocks closed higher and European markets rose Wednesday on upbeat corporate earnings reports and as worries about Greece's debt crisis eased.
Meanwhile, oil prices extended gains above $77 a barrel Wednesday after surging the previous day as the dollar weakened and stock markets climbed as well as expectations a growing U.S. economy will fuel increased crude demand.

Among stocks in the news are Deere & Co (DE) and Whole Foods Market (WFMI), both of which reported better-than-expected earnings, and Campbell Soup (CPB), which lowered its sales outlook for 2010.

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