NEW YORK (CNN/Money) - Wall Street appears to be holding out hope for positive earnings reports to help the market break a three-week streak of declines -- even as rising oil prices and Iraqi elections remain on investors' mind.

Early Monday, U.S. stock futures were pointed to a positive start when trading resumes on Wall Street.

Investors will face a deluge of quarterly results. Among tech heavy-hitters on the docket for this week are American Express (Research), expected to report results during the day Monday.

Altria (Research) is scheduled to release its results on Wednesday and Wall Street will be anxiously awaiting word on its quarter from tech bellwether Microsoft (Research) on Thursday.

There's also a slew of economic updates later in the week. On tap for Tuesday is the report on existing home sales for December and the latest read on consumer confidence.

Thursday brings an update on durable goods orders and the first read on gross domestic product growth in the fourth quarter caps off the week on Friday

U.S. stocks suffered their third straight week of declines Friday marking the first time the Dow has fallen for the first three weeks of the year since 1982. The Dow Jones industrial average lost 0.8 percent for the week, the Nasdaq and the S&P both lost about 0.6 percent.

"Oil prices and trepidation ahead of the upcoming elections in Iraq is driving the markets for now," said Carter Mason, equity trader with Legg Mason. "Earnings are expected to be on the upside, but unfortunately these [results] will be secondary to the broader concerns in the markets."

Iraq is scheduled to hold its first open elections since the fall of the Saddam Hussein regime Sunday.

Oil prices rose in early trading Monday after a snowstorm blanketed much of the Northeast over the weekend. The March light crude contract rose 48 cents to $49.01 a barrel in electronic trading, while Brent crude gained 41 cents to $46.14.

Major Asian markets were mixed Monday while major European markets were down in early trading. The declines follow a broad decline in U.S. stocks Friday.

Bond prices were little changed early Monday with the yield on the 10-year Treasury at 4.14 percent. The dollar gained against the yen but lost ground to the euro in early trading.

In corporate news, the Wall Street Journal reported Monday that directors of Hewlett-Packard (Research) are considering a management reorganization that would distribute some of Chairman and Chief Executive Carly Fiorina's day-to-day responsibilities among other executives.

A $1.25 billion deal between IBM (Research), the No. 1 computer maker, and China's biggest PC maker Lenovo Group Ltd. may be running into trouble over U.S. security, according to a published report over the weekend.