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U.S. stocks set for higher open ahead of economic reports, Dow components' earnings; TI results, targets assure tech investors.
July 25 2006: 6:13 AM EDT


NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- Wall Street's bulls appeared set to continue to rally Tuesday on a strong tech earnings report, in advance of two key economic reports that could help determine if the Federal Reserve halts its interest rate hike campaign.

At 5:30 a.m. ET, S&P and Nasdaq futures pointed to a higher open for the major indexes.

Chipmaker Texas Instruments (Charts) reported a gain in earnings late Monday in line with forecasts. The midpoint of its current quarter guidance is also in line with forecasts, but it helped assure investors who had been nervous about the outlook for technology following the warning from Dell (Charts) on Friday.

Shares of TI gained $1.16, or 4 percent, in after-hours trading.

"The fact that TI is up a dollar after-hours on what is basically an in-line report is telling that we were building in very conservative expectations" for the report, Cody Acree, an analyst with Stifel Nicolaus, told CNNMoney.com after the report.

Chemical company DuPont (Charts) reported a better than expected gain in earnings early Tuesday, as the company reaffirmed its 2006 guidance.

Earnings reports due before the open Tuesday include four other Dow components -- diversified manufacturer 3M (Charts), fast food chain McDonald's (Charts), tobacco company Altria (Charts), telecom AT&T (Charts).

Due shortly after the opening bell Tuesday are two privately released economic reports: consumer confidence for July and existing home sales for June. According to Briefing.com, the Conference Board's consumer index is expected to slip to 104 from 105.7 in June.

The National Association of Realtors' report is seen showing a slowdown in home sales to a 6.6 million annual rate from the 6.67 million rate in May.

Oil prices rose as Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, appearing Tuesday at a news conference with Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, said Israel will continue its offensive against Hezbollah militants in southern Lebanon.

U.S. light crude rose 37 cents to $75.42 a barrel in electronic trading, and Brent crude trading in London was at $75.03, up 42 cents.

Treasury prices advanced, pushing the 10-year note yield down to 5.03 percent from 5.04 percent late Monday.

Stocks in Asia closed higher, with Japan's Nikkei topping the 15,000 mark. Stocks in Europe were up in early trading as BP (Charts) reported a record profit. The dollar was higher against the euro and the yen.

In other corporate news, media conglomerate and Dow component Walt Disney (Charts) agreed to buy Hungama, an Indian children's TV channel that broadcasts in Hindi, for about $30.5 million