US Stock Futures Signal Slightly Higher Open Ahead Of Personal Income , Spending Data

The U.S. stock index futures point to a slightly higher open Friday ahead of the personal income and spending data for August to be released by the Commerce Department.

The futures on the Dow Jones Industrial Average were up 0.10 percent, the futures on the Standard & Poor's 500 index were up 0.08 percent and those on the Nasdaq 100 index were up 0.10 percent.

Investors are likely to focus on the domestic personal spending, as detailed by the Commerce Department's Personal Income and Outlays report, which is expected from the department's Bureau of Economic Analysis Friday. Personal spending, which measures the change in the inflation adjusted value of all spending by consumers, is expected to show a rise of 0.5 percent in August, up from 0.4 percent in July.

The Bureau of Economic Analysis will release Friday the personal income report, which measures the change in the total value of income received from all sources by consumers. It is expected to a rise 0.2 percent in August, down from 0.3 percent in July.

On Thursday, the U.S. markets rose as investor confidence was lifted after Spain announced budget cuts to control the rising debt pressure affecting the country’s economy.  

Meanwhile, according to data released Thursday by the Labor Department, the weekly jobless claims dropped to 359,000 in the week ending Sept. 22, down from 382,000 in the previous week.

According to the report released by the Bureau of Economic Analysis Thursday, the third estimate of the second quarter GDP showed that the economy expanded 1.3 percent in that period, down from 1.7 percent shown by the second estimate reported last month.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 0.54 percent, the S&P 500 Index was up 0.96 percent and the Nasdaq Composite Index advanced 1.39 percent.

European markets rose Friday as investors were hopeful that France would follow Spain to announce budget cuts to reduce deficit and help control the debt pressure face by the euro zone. London's FTSE 100 was up 22.03 points, Germany's DAX 30 index rose 41.32 points and France's CAC 40 gained 8.22 points.

Asian stocks gained Friday as cost cutting measures announced by Spain in its 2013 budget buoyed the market confidence.