US stock index futures indicated a higher opening for Wall Street Tuesday, as the market is riding a six-day winning streak.
Among the early market movers was Amazon.com , which showed brisk holiday sales and saw its price estimate raised to $155 from $120 by analysts at Kauffman Bros. Amazon shares gained nearly 1 percent in premarket trading.
Investors will be watching some morning economic numbers for further clues on the economy's direction.
Tuesday's economic reports include the latest reading on home prices. The S&P/Case-Shiller report is expected to show a drop of 7.7 percent in home prices compared to a year earlier, versus last month's reading of a 9.4 percent drop. That report is out at 9 am New York time.
The Conference Board's latest Consumer Confidence Index is also due at 10 am, expected to come in at 53.0 for December, compared to November's reading of 49.5. And the Treasury will auction $42 billion in 5-year notes, with the results available shortly after 1 pm.
Futures were indicating just a small gain at the open, which would be consistent with recent market activity.
Gains, though consistent, have been relatively modest
This streak, for instance, has seen a 2.3 percent gain for the Dow, where the prior six-day streak (November 4-11) saw a Dow gain of 5.3 percent. Nonetheless, the Dow and the S&P 500 registered their highest closes Monday since October 1, 2008, while the Nasdaq closed at its best since September 3, 2008.
In the news this morning:
General Motorsis holding what many are referring to as a "fire sale" of Saturn and Pontiac vehicles, as it attempts to clear out inventories of those discontinued brands. Costs could be cut as much as 46 percent off the sticker price.
Paulson, the New York hedge fund run by billionaire John Paulson and BlackRock are among a list of prominent investors attracted by the coming IPO of the world's largest aluminum maker, RUSAL.
The Federal Reserve will introduce a term deposit facility which will allow banks to get interest on deposits with maturities of under one year with the central bank, as part of its efforts to soak up excess liquidity from the market, to fight inflation when the recovery will be well under way.
