TheStreet.com: The Market Story: Futures Higher a Retail Sales Exceed Expectations

Futures Higher a Retail Sales Exceed Expectations

Melinda Peer
12/11/2009 8:52 AM EST

NEW YORK (TheStreet) -- Stock futures rose ahead of Friday's opening bell as November retail sales came in much better than expected.

Futures for the S&P 500 were up by 7 points at 1104.2 and were 7.05 points above fair value. Futures for the Nasdaq were up by 11 points and were 11.13 points above fair value.

November retail sales far exceeded expectations, coming in 1.3% higher than the previous month, when sales rose 1.1%. Economists had been anticipating a mild uptick of 0.6%. Import prices, driven by fuel costs, rose the most since June, up 1.7% and export prices were 0.8% higher in November.

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Around 10 a.m. EST, the market receives the preliminary consumer sentiment reading for December. Economists are looking for an improved level of 68.8, compared with a previous reading of 67.4. October's business inventories report will also be released. It's expected to show a decline of 0.2%, which is slightly better than September's decrease of 0.4%.

Also on Friday, Washington's pay czar, Kenneth Feinberg, is expected to announce his ruling on compensation for firms that received government funding.

The dollar was slightly weaker ahead of Friday's opening bell with the dollar index down by 0.08%.

Gold prices were trading higher after the February contract settled slightly ahead on Thursday at $1,126.20 an ounce. Gold for February delivery was last up by $15.80 at $1,142 an ounce.

Oil prices also were trading higher. The January crude contract was most recently up by 40 cents to $70.94 a barrel.

Overseas, Hong Kong's Hang Seng rose 0.9%, and Japan's Nikkei increased 2.5%. The FTSE in London rose 0.9%, and the DAX in Frankfurt was up by 1.1%.

Bank of New York Mellon (BK:NYSE) CEO Robert Kelly appears to be a candidate to succeed Bank of America CEO (BAC:NYSE) Ken Lewis.

In other news, Boeing (BA:NYSE) said its long-delayed Dreamliner could fly as early as Tuesday of next week.

--Written by Melinda Peer in New York.