NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) - Stocks were looking for direction early Friday, as reports of corporate deals were balanced by disappointing guidance from Intel and higher oil prices.

U.S. stock futures were mixed, although a comparison to fair value suggested a flat to slightly higher opening for stocks.

Oil prices were higher Friday ahead of next week's OPEC meeting, as a winter storm that battered the center of the country Thursday hit the East Coast.

The January light crude futures contract for NYMEX gained 39 cents to $61.05 a barrel in electronic trading, while the January contract for Brent crude was up 49 cents to $59.16.

After the close Thursday, No. 1 chipmaker Intel (Research) gave mid-quarter revenue guidance that disappointed some analysts. Shares of Intel sold-off 3 percent in after-hours trading and were 2 percent lower in heavy Frankfurt trading early Friday.

The Wall Street Journal reported that Paramount Pictures, a unit of media conglomerate Viacom (Research), is preparing to make an offer for the independent live-action movie studio DreamWorks SKG. Closely-held DreamWorks, which is seeking a $1 billion purchase price, was already reported to be in talks with General Electric's (Research) NBC Universal unit.

Alltel (Research) announced Friday that it is spinning off its $9.1 billion local-telephone division to shareholders and merging a 15 percent stake of that land line company with Valor Communications Group (Research).

Major markets in Asia closed mostly higher Friday, even in the face of chip stock declines. But major European markets were lower in early trading.

Treasury prices were lower, lifting the yield on the 10-year note to 4.47 percent from the 4.46 percent level late Thursday. The dollar lost against the yen but gained on the euro. Gold was up another 1 percent to $525 an ounce.

Economic reports Friday include the initial reading on December consumer confidence from the University of Michigan survey, which is due right after the market open. Economists surveyed by Briefing.com forecast that the confidence index should improve to 85 from 81.6 at the end of November.

At 10 a.m. ET, the government is also due to report wholesale inventories, which are expected to post a 0.5 percent rise for October following a 0.6 percent gain in September.

Drugmaker Merck (Research) could get a verdict in its first Federal trial charging that its painkiller Vioxx caused a death. The case went to the jury Thursday. The drug was withdrawn from the market due to an increased risk of heart problems in 2004. The Dow component has won one and lost one state trial over Vioxx so far.

Merck shares lost 3 percent in after-hours trading Thursday after a report just before the market close that the New England Journal of Medicine issued a statement in which it said the drugmaker withheld information about the cardiac side effects of Vioxx when it presented the journal data from a key trial on the medicine's safety in 2000.

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