NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) - Some overseas corporate deals were lifting markets in Asia and Europe, and futures on Wall Street early Friday, although U.S. investors will be keeping an eye on the latest troubles at Dow component General Motors, which had to restate results and delay some annual filings for its already disastrous 2005.

U.S. stock futures were up, indicating a higher open for U.S. markets, as the Dow approaches a five-year high. Stocks could also be stirred by a quadruple-witching day as options expire.

But the Dow will likely be weighed down Friday after GM (Research) announced it was revising its 2005 loss $2 billion higher. The company also said it would delay filing its annual report with securities regulators because it had mistakenly accounted for cash flows from a mortgage subsidiary of GMAC called ResCap.

GM is entertaining a sale of a majority stake in its GMAC unit in an effort to restore its investment grade status, and accounting problems there could interfere with such a sale.

Shares of GM were down about 4 percent in pre-market trading on Inet and were also off about 2.5 percent in heavy Frankfurt trading. But major markets in Asia closed higher Friday and major European markets were up in early trading.

"I think the big jump in Japan gives a nice tail wind to the equity markets this morning," said Anthony Chan, chief economist for JPMorgan Private Client Services. He said the latest problems at GM are pretty much limited to that company in the eyes of investors.

"Everybody knows that GM has been a one-step forward, three step backwards type of company," he said.

Japanese Internet conglomerate Softbank said Friday it has agreed to buy the Japanese unit of Vodafone Group (Research), giving it a foothold in Japan's $78 billion mobile market.

L'Oreal will buy The Body Shop in a $1.1 billion deal that will unite the world's top cosmetics company with the British ethically sourced beauty product retailer.

The Wall Street Journal reported that St. Paul Travelers (Research) is in talks to buy Zurich Financial Services in what would be one of the largest American purchases of a European company. The report lifted shares of the Swiss insurer.

Investors led by U.S. financier Carl Icahn Friday won a seat on the board of KT&G Corp., and the group warned they will use the platform to aggressively push for change at South Korea's dominant tobacco company.

Oil prices were down in early trading. The April light crude futures contract for NYMEX fell 18 cents to $63.40 a barrel in electronic trading, while the May contract for Brent crude lost 28 cents to $63.93.

Treasury prices were little changed, after a strong rally Thursday cut the yield on the 10-year treasury to 4.64 percent. The bond prices rose on a positive Consumer Price Index reading and a report from the Philadelphia Federal Reserve that showed less regional manufacturing growth than expected.

Economic reports due Friday include a government on factory capacity utilization and industrial production due just before the market open, and the University of Michigan reading on consumer confidence due soon after the market open. Chan said the consumer confidence reading could have a chance to move the market more than it normally does right now.

"We're seeing data being more and more important," he said.

The dollar was lower against the yen and little changed against the euro.

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