NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) - Stocks could get a lift from tech issues on reports of a possible telecom deal and the addition of Google to the S&P 500.

U.S. stock futures were mixed, as a comparison to fair value pointed to a higher open for both blue chips and the tech-heavy Nasdaq.

Lucent Technologies (Research) and French telecom equipment maker Alcatel (Research) announced they are discussing a deal to create a company that could have a combined market capitalization of $34 billion and revenue greater than rival Cisco Systems (Research). Alcatel shares gained 2.5 percent in heavy Paris trading Friday on the news, while Lucent shares gained more than 6 percent in pre-market trading on Inet early Friday.

Standard & Poor's announced after the market close Thursday it is adding the Internet search engine and bellwether Google (Research) to its benchmark S&P 500 index, a move that will require index funds to add shares of the recently battered stock. Shares of Google were up more than 8 percent in pre-market trading on Inet early Friday.

"The street is really responding well to big mergers. That's a big underlying part of this move up," said Jason Leander, vice president at Rothschild Investment Corp. He sees less of a lift from the Google news.

"Being in S&P should give it a nice little pop, but the street isn't as bullish on it as it once was," he said.

Major markets in Asia closed mixed Friday, as Japan's Nikkei gained and Hong Kong's Hang Seng ended slightly lower. Major European markets were up in early trading on the merger news, including word that German drug and chemical company Bayer unveiled a $19.7 billion bid for domestic rival Schering.

Oil prices were lower in early trading. The May light crude futures contract for NYMEX slipped 31 cents to $63.60 a barrel in electronic trading, while the May contract for Brent crude lost 41 cents to $62.86.

Treasury prices were slightly lower, raising the yield on the benchmark 10-year note to 4.74 percent from 4.73 percent late Thursday. The dollar was slightly higher against the euro and the yen.

Orders for the big ticket durable items rose 2.6 percent for February -- more than expected -- after a revised 8.9 percent drop in January.

The government will report on new home sales at 10 a.m. ET. New home sales are expected to slide to an annual rate of 1.21 million from 1.23 million.

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