Bounce up? 


Futures point to gains at the open; investors await key earnings reports this week; oil prices rise.


January 24, 2005: 6:26 AM EST

NEW YORK (CNN/Money) - Wall Street appears to be holding out hope for positive earnings reports this week to help the market break a three-week streak of declines.

Early Monday, U.S. stock futures were pointed to a positive start when trading resumes on Wall Street.

Investors will face a deluge of quarterly results. Among tech heavy-hitters on the docket for this week are American Express (Research), expected to report results during the day Monday.

Altria (Research) is scheduled to release its results on Wednesday and Wall Street will be anxiously awaiting word on its quarter from tech bellwether Microsoft (Research) on Thursday.

There's also a slew of economic updates later in the week. On tap for Tuesday is the report on existing home sales for December and the latest read on consumer confidence.

Thursday brings an update on durable goods orders and the first read on gross domestic product growth in the fourth quarter caps off the week on Friday

Major Asian markets were mixed Monday while major European markets were down in early trading. The declines follow a broad decline in U.S. stocks Friday.

Oil prices rose in early trading Monday after a snowstorm blanketed much of the Northeast over the weekend. The March light crude contract rose 57 cents to $49.10 a barrel in electronic trading, while Brent crude gained 41 cents to $46.14.

Bond prices were little changed early Monday with the yield on the 10-year Treasury at 4.14 percent. The dollar gained against the yen but lost ground to the euro in early trading.

U.S. stocks suffered their third straight week of declines Friday marking the first time the Dow has fallen for the first three weeks of the year since 1982. The Dow Jones industrial average lost 0.8 percent for the week, the Nasdaq and the S&P both lost about 0.6 percent.

In corporate news, the Wall Street Journal reported Monday that directors of Hewlett-Packard (Research) are considering a management reorganization that would distribute some of Chairman and Chief Executive Carly Fiorina's day-to-day responsibilities among other executives.

A $1.25 billion deal between IBM (Research), the No. 1 computer maker, and China's biggest PC maker Lenovo Group Ltd. may be running into trouble over U.S. security, according to a published report over the weekend.