U.S. Stocks To Open Lower As Oil Rises, Fannie Mae Drops

New York, NY (AHN) - Stocks on Wall Street are set to open lower on Friday as oil prices inched-up towards record levels and Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac tumbled in pre-market trading.

Analysts speculate that the U.S. economy will remain weak even after retailers posted higher June same-store sales, an important measure of performance in the industry.

At 9:09 a.m. EDT in New York, Standard & Poor's 500 Index futures were moving up by 8 points or 0.70 percent at 1,253, Dow Jones Industrial Average futures were increasing by 81 points or 0.73 percent at 11,229.

At the same time, Nasdaq Composite Index futures were advancing by 22 points or 1.03 percent at 2,257.

In commodities, crude oil rallied above the $145-a-barrel mark in electronic trading on Friday.

The contract added $3.75 to $145.40 a barrel in morning trading over reports Brazilian oil employees may go on strike, Middle Eastern tension is likely to escalate and Nigerian supplies could be disrupted.

The contract surged by $5.60 to $141.65 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange overnight Thursday as U.S. markets plunged in New York.

On July 3, oil had jumped to an intraday record high of $146.34 a barrel, after it moved up by $1.77 at $146.03 in morning trading, pushing prices up by 55 percent since the start of this year.

Shares of General Electric added as much as 36 cents to $28 after it reported a profitable second-quarter as expected by analysts.

GE reported that its revenue rose by 11 percent to $46.9 billion, unexpected since the company earlier projected revenue would be around $45 billion.