NEW YORK (CNN/Money) - Investors fears' of inflation may have been soothed early Friday, with futures pointing to a higher stock market open after the Consumer Price Index report and a drop in oil prices..

U.S. stock futures were higher following the 8:30 a.m. ET CPI report, which showed that consumer prices up 1.2 percent in September. However, the so-called core CPI, which excludes often-volatile food and energy prices, was up 0.1 percent, below forecasts.

Economists surveyed by Briefing.com expected a CPI increase 0.9 percent in September due to record gasoline prices, compared with a 0.5 percent rise in August. Core CPI was expected to be up 0.2 percent.

Futures turned higher just before the report as crude prices briefly fell below $62 a gallon, and remained down significantly.

The Commerce Department also reported that U.S. retail sales rose by a less-than-expected 0.2 percent in September. Retail sales were forecast to be up 0.5 percent in September, and up 0.8 percent excluding relatively weaker auto sales.

Later in the morning come reports on industrial production, capacity utilization, consumer confidence and business inventories.

But economic reports won't get all the attention. Conglomerate General Electric (Research) reported a gain in earnings in line with analysts' forecasts, on slightly better than expected revenue.

Oil prices were down in early trading.

The November light crude futures contract for NYMEX lost 96 cents to $62.12 a barrel in electronic trading, while the November contract for Brent crude fell 76 cents to $59.38.

Major markets in Asia closed lower Friday. Major European markets also were lower in early trading.

Treasury prices rebounded after the CPI report, lowering the yield on the 10-year note to 4.43 percent from the 4.46 percent level late Thursday. The dollar gained ground against on the euro and the yen.

In other corporate news, No. 4 U.S. oil company Occidental Petroleum (Research) agreed late Thursday to buy rival Vintage Petroleum (Research) for about $3.52 billion, in a cash and stock deal worth about a 33 percent premium for Vintage shareholders.

Hilton Hotels (Research) confirmed Friday it is in discussions to acquire the lodging business of British-based Hilton Group PLC, which operates many of the overseas hotels using the Hilton brand.

For a more detailed look at the markets before the open, click here.