Stock futures signal gains; eyes on GE, BofA

At 3.56 a.m. EDT, futures for the S&P 500 were up 0.28 percent, Dow Jones futures were up 0.31 percent and Nasdaq 100 futures were up 0.4 percent.

The tech sector will be in focus after Google and IBM reported robust results that beat expectations, soothing concerns over the health of the technology sector after Nokia, the world's top cellphone maker, reported its worst ever result.

Google stock traded in Frankfurt was up 3.8 percent, while IBM stock traded in Frankfurt was down 2.4 percent.

Also after the bell on Thursday, Advanced Micro Devices Inc posted a narrower-than-expected loss and said it has turned its core chipmaking business profitable, but the results failed to excite investors, who sold off its shares in extended trade. AMD shares traded in Frankfurt were down 2.7 percent.

Callaway Golf Co forecast a weak third-quarter, weighed down by charges and a stronger U.S. dollar, sending its shares down 4 percent in after market trade.

U.S. trade regulators could require major concessions in exchange for approving a proposed merger between concert promoter Live Nation Inc and ticketing giant Ticketmaster Entertainment Inc , sources told the Wall Street Journal on Thursday.

Energy shares will be in the spotlight as crude oil futures rose up for a seventh session just below $78 a barrel on Friday, after touching a one-year high earlier on an unexpectedly steep drop in U.S. oil product stocks and weakness in the dollar.

Japan's Nikkei stock average clawed up 0.2 percent on Friday to a three-week closing high, while European stocks are up 0.7 percent in morning trade in a broad rally, led by energy shares such as BP and Total .

The first stage of the U.S. economic recovery is coming along better-than-expected but the rebound may be prolonged as consumers save more and businesses clean up their balance sheets, U.S. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner said on Thursday.

The enormous amounts of liquidity pumped into the U.S. financial system by the Federal Reserve are not inflationary at the moment but will become so at some point, Paul Volcker, the former Fed chairman and a White House adviser, said on Thursday.

The day's economic agenda includes the Federal Reserve's industrial production and capacity utilization data for September, due at 9:15 a.m. EDT, and the Reuters/University of Michigan Surveys of Consumers' preliminary October consumer sentiment index, due at 9:55 a.m. EDT.

The U.S. construction industry should see modest gains in 2010, with the building of single-family houses, apartment buildings, highways and bridges on the rise, offsetting drops in commercial and manufacturing property, the Wall Street Journal said, citing an industry report.

Late-day strength drove U.S. stocks to 2009 highs on Thursday as rising oil prices lifted energy shares, eclipsing the banking sector's retreat after investors panned earnings from Goldman Sachs and Citigroup. Indexes once again set highs for the year and the Dow held above the 10,000 mark after breaching it for the first time in a year on Wednesday.

The Dow Jones industrial average <.DJI> added 47.08 points, or 0.47 percent, to end at 10,062.94. The Standard & Poor's 500 Index <.SPX> gained 4.54 points, or 0.42 percent, to 1,096.56. The Nasdaq Composite Index <.IXIC> edged up 1.06 points, or 0.05 percent, to close at 2,173.29.

(Reporting by Blaise Robinson; editing by Simon Jessop)