Bulls get ready to run

NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- Major gauges pointed to a higher open Wednesday, helped by a bigger-than-expected productivity and moderate labor cost readings, and solid results from tech leader Cisco Systems.

At 8:55 a.m. ET, both Nasdaq and S&P futures were solidly higher.

Wall Street embraced a stronger-than-expected 3 percent increase in U.S. business productivity in the fourth quarter. Analysts were anticipating a 1.8 percent increase.

The closely watched unit labor costs rose at a 1.7 percent annual rate, falling short of expectations, soothing inflation worries in the market over labor costs. The consensus is for labor costs was a 2.3 percent increase in the quarter.

Shares of tech bellwether Cisco Systems (Charts) rose about 4.3 percent in after-hours trading after reporting earnings and guidance that were both better than analysts forecasts.

Oil advanced ahead of the weekly report on U.S. fuel inventories from the Energy Department, due at 10:30 a.m. ET. U.S. light crude rose 53 cents to $59.41 a barrel in electronic trading.

Treasury prices eased. The 10-year note yield climbed to 4.77 percent from 4.76 percent late Tuesday. The dollar was higher against the yen in early trading, but narrowly lower versus the euro.

Stocks in Asia closed mixed while major markets in Europe were higher in early trading.

Media conglomerates News Corp. (Charts) a rise in earnings excluding special items that was a penny a share better than forecasts.

Another major media firm, Dow Jones industrial average component Walt Disney (Charts), is due to report results after the closing bell with analysts also looking for improved results there.

Shareholders of Equity Office Properties (Charts) meet Wednesday to consider the competing bids for the nation's largest owner of office space - a $55.50 a share cash offer from private equity firm Blackstone Group, worth $23 billion excluding debt, or the $56 a share cash-and-stock offer from Vornado Realty (Charts). Management at EOP is backing the Blackstone offer.

The Chicago Tribune reports that Equity Office Chairman Sam Zell has had some initial discussions with the Tribune Co. (Charts) and its No. 2 shareholder, the McCormick Tribune Foundation, about a complicated deal for control of the media conglomerate, which has put itself up for sale but thus far failed to attract the bid being sought by the board.

Online retailer Amazon (Charts) and TiVo (Charts), a leader among providers of digital video recorders, announced an agreement to allow customers to watch videos rented or bought over the Internet directly on televisions.

Ford (Charts), which last year announced that 38,000 hourly workers, or just over half of the U.S. work force, had taken retirement or buyout offers to leave the company, said late Tuesday that about 8,000 of those workers left the company in January.

The Securities and Exchange Commission said Tuesday it charged the former chief financial officer and former controller of defense contractor Engineered Support Systems in a stock options backdating fraud. The company was purchased last year by DRS Technologies (Charts).

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