Stocks On Wall Street To Continue The Rally

July 17, 2008 9:43 a.m. EST

New York, NY (AHN) - Stocks on Wall Street are set to open higher on Thursday as oil prices move down, JPMorgan Chase & Co. posts better earnings offsetting the weak report on U.S. single family homes in June.

The number of newly built single-family homes declined by 5.3 percent, down to a 17-year low in June, according to the Commerce Department reported Thursday.

The market analysts speculate that the U.S. economy will remain weak even after the banking sector has started to show some improvement in their earnings report for the second quarter.

At 9:42 a.m. EDT in New York, Standard & Poor's 500 Index futures was moving up by 8 points at 1,253 points, Dow Jones Industrial Average futures was increasing by 88 points at 11,328.

At the same time, NASDAQ- 100 Index futures was advancing by 20 points at 2,305.

Crude oil unchanged, down $4.14 at $134.60 a barrel.

Oil prices plunged by as much as $4.14 or 3 percent to settle at $134.60 a barrel on New York Mercantile Exchange on Wednesday, boosting up the U.S. markets.

Shares of JPMorgan gained by $1.76 to $37.70 after it reported earnings of $2 billion, or 54 cents per share, topping the expectations of the market analysts, compared to $4.2 billion, or $1.20, a year earlier.

The firm, however, posted weaker net income that declined by 52 percent.

Shares of Coca-Cola Co. also gained as the firm posted a better than expected second quarter report as its net profit declined by 23 percent to $1.42 billion, or 61 cents a share, compared to $1.85 billion, or 80 cents a share, a year earlier.

Merrill Lynch & Co. shares gained by 35 cents to $28.35 as the third- biggest U.S. securities firm is scheduled to report earnings later today.