Stock index futures rose on Friday, supported by technology shares after Oracle gave an upbeat forecast.

Wall Street analysts boosted their price targets on Oracle Corp shares after the business software maker late Thursday forecast a rise in sales of new software in its fiscal fourth quarter. The optimistic view fueled hopes that a global resurgence in technology spending remained intact.

The stock rose 4.7 percent at $33.66 in premarket trade.

BlackBerry maker Research In Motion Ltd , however, said earnings would slip as it spends heavily on the launch of its PlayBook tablet, sending its stock down 12.1 percent at $56.35 premarket.

On the economic front, investors will keep an eye on the final reading of fourth-quarter gross domestic product at 8:30 a.m. EDT. Economists in a Reuters survey expected a reading of 3.3 percent, compared with a preliminary 2.8 percent.

The Thomson Reuters/University of Michigan consumer sentiment survey is due at 9:55 a.m. EDT.

S&P 500 futures were up 3.5 points, and above fair value, a formula that evaluates pricing by taking into account interest rates, dividends and time to expiration on the contract. Dow Jones industrial average futures gained 46 points, and Nasdaq 100 futures rose 8 points.

Further gains above the widely watched S&P 500 resistance level of 1,300 is likely to trigger more buying heading into quarter-end (and) into the first few weeks of April, said Robert Sluymer, an analyst at RBC Capital Markets LLC in New York.

U.S. stocks rose Thursday on optimism about upcoming earnings and as investors bought the quarter's top performers, lifting the S&P 500 above the technical level. The S&P 500 is up 2.5 percent so far this week, and the Dow has gained 2.6 percent. Nasdaq has put on 3.5 percent.

Standard & Poor's downgraded Portugal's credit ratings two notches to its second lowest investment grade rating and said it could cut again by one notch as early as next week, depending on the final shape of the euro zone bailout fund. S&P followed a two-notch cut by Fitch.

(Reporting by Angela Moon; editing by Jeffrey Benkoe)

Portugal