NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) - Stock futures pointed to gains at the open Friday as investors absorb the trade balance report and look ahead to new guidance from drugmaker Pfizer due later in the morning.

But futures fell from earlier highs after the Commerce Department's trade report.

The trade gap widened slightly in December to the third-highest level on record and pushed the annual deficit to a record $725.8 billion, up 17.5 percent from 2004, the government said.

The December deficit totaled $65.7 billion, up 1.5 percent from a slightly revised $64.7 billion in November. Economists surveyed by Briefing.com forecast that the gap would grow to $64.8 billion in December from $64.2 billion in November, which was the third largest gap on record.

"Everything driving the economy right now is based on consumer spending," said Jason Leander, vice president at Rothschild Investment Corp. "For the most part we're seeing much of the same positive outlook."

The trade report comes ahead of the G8 meeting of the world's largest economies in Russia this weekend, when trade and oil, as well as what many view as the artificially low value of the Chinese yuan, could get attention. China let the yuan rise to record highs against the dollar for the third straight day Friday ahead of the meeting.

Leander said that traders could also be looking for good news from Dow component Pfizer (Research), which is meeting with analysts starting at 9 a.m. ET Friday. The company, which pulled its guidance for 2006 and 2007 last October, is expected to give new guidance and an update on questions about its patent protections, its pipeline of new drugs and a closer look at plans to sell its consumer products division.

"You have to think they're not going to get people together to say things aren't really that great," said Leander about expectations for the meeting.

Oil prices were relatively flat in early trading Friday. The March light crude futures contract for NYMEX was up 8 cents to $62.70 a barrel in electronic trading, while the March contract for Brent crude fell 8 cents to $60.67.

Major markets in Asia closed mostly lower Friday on interest rate concerns. The U.S. International Trade Commission announced it will investigate a complaint that Toyota Motor's (Research) hybrid models infringed a patent. Major European markets were also off in early trading.

Treasury prices rallied after the trade report, with the yield on the benchmark 10-year note sinking to 4.51 percent from 4.54 percent late Thursday.

In corporate news, business software provider Oracle (Research) announced it was cutting 2,000 jobs and said it would narrowly miss or meet current earnings forecasts. Shares of Oracle lost almost 1 percent in European trading.

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