NEW YORK (

TheStreet

) -- U.S. stock futures pointed to a flat open Friday as investors weighed the passage of President Obama's tax cut extension plan against a five-notch downgrade to Ireland's debt.

Futures for the

Dow Jones Industrial Average

were up by 3 points, or 1 point below fair value, at 11,434. Futures for the

S&P 500

were a half point lower, or nearly half of a point above fair value, at 1,238, and

Nasdaq

futures were down by 2 points, or 1 point above fair value.

Moody's downgraded Ireland's government bonds by five notches to Baa1, three levels above junk status, and maintained its negative outlook on the same day that

European Union leaders agreed to a new system that will resolve future debt crises.

Also lending support to futures,

BMO Financial

(BMO) - Get Report

agreed to buy

Marshall & Ilsley

( MI) for $4.1 billion. Marshall & Ilsley's stock shot up 27% to $7.37 in premarket trading while BMO's stock traded 2.7% lower at $60.

Stocks rose Thursday as an unexpected drop in initial jobless claims, a jump in regional manufacturing activity and a higher 2011 profit outlook from

FedEx

(FDX) - Get Report

lifted sentiment.

Late Thursday, the

U.S. House of Representatives voted 277 to 148 in favor of President Obama's compromise with Republicans to maintain the Bush-era tax cuts, extend unemployment benefits and introduce new credits for small businesses.

Overseas, Hong Kong's Hang Seng gained 0.2% while Japan's Nikkei slipped 0.07%. The FTSE in London was down by 0.2% and the DAX in Frankfurt was off by 0.1%.

The Conference Board will release its leading indicators report for November at 10 a.m. ET. The index, which is designed to identify turning points in the business cycle, is projected to jump 1.2%, from 0.5%, according to

Briefing.com

.

Shares of

Oracle

(ORCL) - Get Report

were up 4.5% to $31.64 ahead of Friday's opening bell after the

software company topped expectations with second-quarter adjusted earnings of 51 cents per share on sales of $8.65 billion. Analysts had been projecting a profit of 46 cents a share on sales of $8.34 billion.

Research In Motion

( RIMM) saw its stock trade 1.8% higher to $60.31 during the premarket session after it

topped Wall Street's third-quarter profit expectations by a dime with earnings of $1.74 per share.

Shares of

Accenture

(ACN) - Get Report

were ahead by 4% to $48.52 in early trading after it upped its full-year forecast to earnings in the range of $3.08 to $3.16, from a range of $3 to $3.08. Sales are now expected to rise between 8% and 11%, from previous guidance for a year-end sales increase of 7% to 10%.

French oil giant

Total

(TOT) - Get Report

will pay Canada's

Suncor Energy

(SU) - Get Report

1.75 billion Canadian dollars ($1.74 billion) in a

strategic oil sands alliance that involves three projects in Alberta, Canada.

Massey Energy

( MEE) is exploring

options ranging from a sale of the company to a takeover of

International Coal Group

( ICO), according to a

Bloomberg

report. Massey's stock was up 0.2% to $50.80 in early trading.

In commodity markets, the January crude oil contract was down by 19 cents to trade at $87.51 a barrel. The February gold contract, the most actively traded gold future, traded 50 cents higher at $1,371.50 an ounce.

The dollar weakened against a basket of currencies with the dollar index down by 0.1%. The benchmark 10-year Treasury note strengthened 5/32, diluting the yield to 3.415%.

.

-- Written by Melinda Peer in New York

.

Disclosure: TheStreet's editorial policy prohibits staff editors and reporters from holding positions in any individual stocks.