- The Richest Members of the US Congress
- New Consensus Sees Stimulus Package as Worthy Step
- Wall Street Jobs Slow to Return Despite Record Profits
- Thanksgiving Week Stuffed With Economic News
- Black Friday Deals May Not Signal Retail Comeback
- Investors to Goldman: Be Less Greedy
- UPS Sets New Rates For 2010
- Victoria's Secret Hopes to Rekindle Desire for Lingerie
- 'New Moon' Takes Record $72.7M Box Office Bite
- How Stock Investors Can Play Holiday Travel
- Time Lapse World Series Is A Great Play
- Hirschhorn: Greed...or Fear
- My Top 10 Tech Toys for the Holidays
- iPhone a Better Gaming Platform Than Android?
- May Day For Dendreon
- 100% Mortgage Financing From USDA
- Holiday Tipping: Who And How Much
- Deep Discounts Should Make It a Very Tech-y Holiday
Text Size 
Futures added to modest gains as Microsoft posted an impressive earnings beat, joining the parade of firms that have shown positive surprises.
A day after the rollout of its new Windows 7 operating system, Microsoft [MSFT
Loading...
()
] said it earned 40 cents per share in the previous quarter, well ahead of analyst expectations of 32 cents. Shares jumped 7.7 percent in premarket trading.
A handful of companies reporting after the bell Thursday blew away analyst estimates. Amazon.com [AMZN
Loading...
()
] led the parade and its shares are up 17 percent in premarket trading.
American Express [AXP
Loading...
()
] also exceeded expectations as did competitor Capital One Financial [COF
Loading...
()
], whose shares rose nearly 8 percent premarket.
Diversfied manufacturer Honeywell reported before the bell, beating estimates even though profit fell 15 percent to 80 cents per share. Shares gained 2.2 percent premarket.
Whirlpool, Schlumberger and Ingersoll-Rand also reported better-than-expected earnings.
Other earnings reports of note this morning will include: Exelon; Fortune Brands and T.Rowe Price.
Wall Street also was watching a speech from Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke, who called on Congress to act quickly on its overhaul of the financial regulatory system and outlined some of his own ideas.
Fed Vice Chairman Donald Kohn will also speak at that conference, with his remarks coming at 11:30 am.
Friday's key economic report comes at 10 am, when the National Association of Realtors puts out its September report on existing home sales. Economists are looking for an increase of 5.9 percent to an annual rate of 5.4 million units, following a 2.7 percent drop in August.
News items of interest: Chrysler Financial will liquidate and go out of business within two years, following the bankruptcies and restructurings of both General Motors and Chrysler.
The European Union has approved Merck's [MRK
Loading...
()
] acquisition of Schering-Plough [SGP
Loading...
()
]. Time Warner's [TWC
Loading...
()
] magazine division Time Inc. is reportedly planning another round of job cuts.
Mining stocks could be in focus as well after Credit Suisse upgraded the group to "benchmark" due to expected growth from China as well as high global liquidity.
The UK economy contracted for the sixth consecutive quarter during the third quarter, making the current recession the longest on record.
- Writen by Peter Schacknow, Senior Producer, CNBC Breaking News Desk
- Technology can make or break a fortune in the world of alternative energy.
- Many people are facing the holidays with substantially smaller incomes. Here’s how some are adapting.
- Jim Cramer is a proponent of stocks that pay healthy dividends, and here are his top five dividend plays.
- From salt, to lip balm to envelopes, it turns out that bacon flavoring can sell almost anything.
- The homebuyer's tax credit jacked sales for a while, but 2010 is looking weak. Now what?
- CNBC’s technology reporter Jim Goldman guides you through the best gadgets to buy this holiday season.
Data is a real-time snapshot *Data is delayed at least 15 minutes