Stocks set for higher opening following Bank of America news, NBC Universal deal

Stock futures point to higher opening on BofA news

Wall Street is looking at a stronger open Thursday on news that Bank of America Corp. will repay its $45 billion in government bailout money.

The bank, which has been struggling to find a new CEO because of the restrictions on executive pay that accompanied the bailout, said late Wednesday it will raise more than $18 billion in capital to help fund the repayment. Bank of America said it expected the move would help it recruit a successor to the retiring Ken Lewis.

Investors are seeing the bank’s move as a sign of its increasing strength and that economic conditions are improving.

Markets are also drawing some confidence from news that the cable company Comcast Corp. has agreed to pay nearly $14 billion in cash and assets to General Electric Co. for a majority stake in NBC Universal, which owns NBC and numerous cable networks and the Universal Pitcures studio. Shares of both companies edged up in premarket dealings on word of the long-awaited deal.

And Toll Brothers Inc. said it is seeing signs of a turnaround in the housing market, even as the luxury homebuilder lost $111.4 million in the fiscal fourth quarter.

Meanwhile, investors are awaiting retailers’ November sales reports for the first solid look at how the holiday shopping season is faring. Without the help of the consumer, whose spending accounts for around for 70 percent of the economy, economists say any economic recovery will be modest.

Ahead of the opening bell, Dow Jones industrial average futures rose 34, or 0.3 percent, to 10,473. Standard & Poor’s 500 index futures rose 4.70, or 0.4 percent, to 1,112.60, while Nasdaq 100 index futures rose 4.00, or 0.2 percent, to 1,795.50.

In other economic news expected Thursday, the Labor Department issues its weekly tally of first-time claims for unemployment benefits. The report, due at 8:30 a.m. EST, is projected to show claims rose by 14,000 to a seasonally adjusted 480,000 last week, according to economists surveyed by Thomson Reuters.

The department is also scheduled to issue its revised estimate of productivity and labor costs for the third quarter. Economists forecast that productivity, or the amount of output per hour of work, will have grown at an 8.5 percent annual rate from July through September, compared with an earlier estimate of 9.5 percent.

Later in the morning, the Institute for Supply Management issues its service sector index for November. Economists expect that the index rose to 51.5 in November from 50.6 in October. A reading of 50 or above means the sector is growing.

The stock market struggled but held its ground Wednesday as an upbeat assessment of the economy from the Federal Reserve offset drops in banks and energy companies.

Meanwhile, bond prices fell Thursday. The yield on the benchmark 10-year Treasury note, which moves opposite its price, rose to 3.35 percent from 3.32 percent late Wednesday. The yield on the three-month T-bill, considered one of the safest investments, rose to 0.5 percent from 0.4 percent.

The dollar mostly fell against other major currencies, while gold prices rose.

Overseas, Japan’s Nikkei stock average rose 3.8 percent. In afternoon trading, Britain’s FTSE 100 was up 0.1 percent, while Germany’s DAX index and France’s CAC-40 were up 0.6. percent.