Techs on a tear?

Stock futures higher after positive results from eBay, Motorola; Dow set to bounce off '05 low.

April 21, 2005: 6:16 AM EDT

NEW YORK (CNN/Money) - Winning bids on eBay and wireless connections on Motorola phones could combine to lift U.S. stocks when markets open Thursday.

Futures were up in early trading, indicating a higher opening for stocks after the Dow and Standard & Poor's 500 hit new lows for the year Wednesday. A worse-than-expected report on consumer prices and comments from the various Federal Reserve banks about mounting price pressures drove stocks lower.

After the market close Wednesday, there were better than expected earnings online auction site eBay (Research) and strong outlook and results from cell phone maker Motorola (Research).

Earnings reports due early Thursday include Dow components McDonalds (Research) and Merck (Research) as well as United Parcel Service (Research), the world's largest transportation company. After the bell earnings include search engine Google (Research).

Oil prices were lower Thursday following Wednesday's gain on an inventories showing an unexpected drop in U.S. fuel supplies.

The May light crude contract lost 47 cents to $53.56 a barrel in electronic trading, while the May contract for Brent crude fell 35 cents to $53.43.

Major markets in Asia closed mixed Thursday following the U.S. sell-off. Major European markets were mostly higher in early trading.

Treasury prices were lower in early trading, lifting the yield on the 10-year note to 4.22 percent from the 4.18 percent level late Wednesday. The dollar gained ground on the euro and the yen.

Economic reports Thursday include the weekly reading on initial jobless claims as well as a report on leading economic indicators.

Investors will also get hear comments from Fed Chairman Alan Greenspan on federal budget deficits and ways to close the government spending gap. His testimony before the Senate Budget committee is due to start at 10 a.m. ET.