Stocks Aim for More Gains

Stocks were headed for a higher open Monday as Wall Street prepared for more economic data and bid to extend the previous session's run-up.

Futures on the S&P 500 were gaining 1 point to 1333.20 and were about 4 points above fair value. Nasdaq 100 futures were higher by 2.5 points at 1655, roughly 4.5 points ahead of fair value.

On Friday, a friendly reading on consumer inflation lifted the Dow Jones Industrial Average 33.38 points, or 0.29%, to 11,560.77, putting the measure within roughly 200 points of its best-ever close. The S&P 500 added 3.59 points, or 0.27%, to 1319.87 and reached nearly a five-and-a-half year high. The Nasdaq rose for the sixth straight day, gaining 6.86 points, or 0.31%, to 2235.59.

More data is on tap this week, including the producer price index, a report that details inflation at the wholesale level.

Traders will be watching the data closely ahead of Wednesday's meeting of Federal Reserve policymakers. At its August meeting, the Fed left its target fed funds rate unchanged at 5.25%. Prior to that, the central bank had raised rates by a quarter point at every gathering going back to June 2004.

On the corporate side, Freescale Semiconductor (FSL Quote - Cramer on FSL - Stock Picks) said late Friday that it had reached a deal to be acquired by a group of private investors led by Blackstone Group. The former Motorola (MOT Quote - Cramer on MOT - Stock Picks) unit will be bought for around $17.6 billion.

Meanwhile, Hewlett-Packard (HPQ Quote - Cramer on HPQ - Stock Picks) remained in the news over its secret program to access phone records of directors. Published reports this weekend said the company's investigators accessed records of two employees, including one of its spokesmen. The probe into the matter led Patricia Dunn to set plans to step down as chairwoman in January.

Treasuries were lower. The benchmark 10-year note was down 4/32 in price and yielding 4.81%.

Equities rose overseas. London's FTSE 100 was up 0.6% to 5909, and Frankfurt's Xetra DAX was higher by 0.1% at 5941. Hong Kong's Hang Seng advanced 0.9% to 17,387. Tokyo's markets were closed.