Bulls chomping at the bit

NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- A bidding war for a major European bank and good earnings from an online retailing bellwether could help lift stocks at the start Wednesday, ahead of the latest reading on home building.

Stock futures were up in early trading, indicating a higher open, as the Dow will take another run at the 13,000 benchmark. A narrow gain in stocks Tuesday left the blue chip index less than 50 points away from that level.

At 10 a.m. the Census Bureau will release its reading on new home sales and prices in March. Economists surveyed by Briefing.com forecast that new home sales rebounded slightly from the slowest pace in six years in February, rising to an annual rate of 890,000 from 848,000 in the February report.

The National Association of Realtors on Tuesday reported the sharpest drop in existing home sales in 18 years in March, news that weighed on stocks for much of the morning before the afternoon rally. While new homes are only a fraction of the market, Wednesday's report is more forward looking because it records sales at a time a sales contract is signed, not when the sale closes a month or two later as the existing homes report does.

A government report on durable goods orders showed stronger-than-expected demand for big-ticket items, as the 3.4 percent gain was well above the 2.5 percent rise forecast by economists. The February reading was also revised up to a 2.4 percent gain from the original reading of a 1.7 percent gain, and a key measure of business spending in the report showed the best gain since September 2004.

Early Wednesday, the Royal Bank of Scotland led a group that made a $98 billion bid for ABN Amro (Charts), as it tried to block a $91 billion bid for the Dutch bank by Barclays (Charts).

Amazon.com (Charts, Fortune 500) reported earnings that beat Wall Street forecasts and it raised its sales guidance while also announcing a half-billion dollar share buyback plan. Shares of Amazon surged more than 12 percent in after-hours trading on the news.

Dow component Boeing (Charts, Fortune 500) reported better-than-forecast earnings.

ConocoPhillips (Charts, Fortune 500), the nation's No. 3 oil company, and the first major U.S. oil company to report results, posted lower earnings.

Oil prices were up in early trading ahead of the 10:30 a.m. ET report on U.S. fuel inventories. U.S. light crude gained 38 cents to $64.96 a barrel in electronic trading.

Treasury prices were lower in early trading, taking the yield on the 10-year note to 4.64 percent from the 4.62 percent level reached late Tuesday. The dollar was lower against the euro and the yen.

Markets in Asia generally closed lower. Shares of Honda Motor (Charts) fell 2 percent in Japan ahead of its after-hour report that showed earnings falling 20 percent in spite of strong auto sales. Shares in Europe were higher in early trading.