Stocks ready to rise

NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- Technology stocks could lead the way to an opening advance for U.S. stocks Tuesday.

At 8:06 a.m. ET, Nasdaq and S&P futures were higher, with the tech-heavy Nasdaq showing more indication of a solid initial gain.

Oil rallied. U.S. light crude rose $1.02 to $59.76 a barrel in electronic trading, as a cold snap in the Northeast continued. That region of the country is the prime user of heating oil rather than natural gas to heat homes.

Treasury prices eased, with the U.S. 10-year note yield rising to 4.81 percent from 4.8 percent late Monday.

Art Hogan, chief market analyst at Jefferies & Co., said that there doesn't seem to be any one piece of news or data that is lifting futures early Tuesday. He attributes the rise to the continuation of the rally seen since the Federal Reserve's relatively positive statement last Wednesday when it left rates unchanged.

"It's hard to explain why when you look at oil prices flirting with $60 again on the colder weather," he said. "I think the path of least resistance for this market has been up since the Fed meeting."

Stocks in Asia closed higher Tuesday, helped by a strong jump in earnings at Toyota Motor (Charts). Stocks in Europe gained in early trading.

Shares of oil company BP (Charts) fell nearly 2 percent in London after the company reported lower earnings and cut production targets.

The dollar fell against the yen and the euro.

There are no economic readings due Tuesday, although Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke is set to give a luncheon speech on currencies in Omaha, Neb., while Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson and White House Budget Director Rob Portman go to Capitol Hill to argue for the Bush administration's proposed budget.

Early Tuesday private equity group Blackstone Partners raised its bid for Equity Office Properties (Charts) to $39 billion, or $55.50 a share in cash, the day before shareholders were set to vote on the deal, as it tries to hold off a rival $56 cash and stock bid by Vornado Realty Trust (Charts).

Embattled home improvement retailer Home Depot (Charts), which dumped its chairman and CEO last month, said late Monday it is giving a seat on its board to a principal from an investment group that had threated a proxy fight to push the company to consider a leveraged buyout. As a result, Relational Investors has agreed to end the proxy fight.

Shares of the Dow component were up nearly 1 percent in Frankfurt trading early Tuesday.

The nation's top film company, Eastman Kodak (Charts), announced that it is introducing a line of desktop printers and low cost replacement inks, as it takes aim at a market now dominated by Hewlett Packard (Charts).

Online auction leader eBay (Charts) rolled out a service for U.S. auto dealers intended to drive a tenfold increase in the inventory of used cars for sale on its Web site.

After the closing bell, tech bellwether Cisco Systems (Charts) is due to report results. with analysts forecasting a 20 percent rise in earnings and 25 percent gain in revenue in the quarter ended in January.

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