Stocks set for opening gains

NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- U.S. stock futures rose Wednesday after General Motors reached a tentative agreement with the United Auto Workers to end a two-day strike.

At 8:21 a.m. ET, S&P and Nasdaq futures were sharply higher, with a comparison to fair value suggesting a strong start for Wall Street.

The news from Dow component GM (Charts, Fortune 500) is likely to give blue chips a boost. The nation's largest automaker finally reached a labor deal with union negotiators to end a nationwide strike by 73,000 workers. Shares of GM were up 7 percent.

While most analysts had been expecting only a short strike at GM, the agreement removed some of the concerns overhanging the stock.

"The news out of Detroit is clearly good," said Peter Cardillo, chief market economist, Avalon Partners. But Cardillo said stocks are also being helped by investors and portfolio managers who had gotten out of stocks during the market turmoil of August trying to get back into stocks before the end of the quarter.

Friday is the last trading day of 2007's third quarter.

Stocks were mostly lackluster Tuesday after a big drop in consumer confidence reignited concerns about the economic outlook, although tech shares managed to stage a late-session rally.

On the economic front, a report on August durable orders is due at 8:30 a.m. ET. Economists surveyed by Briefing.com expect orders for big-ticket items like refrigerators and computers fell 3.5 percent last month after rising 6 percent in July.

The government's weekly report on crude supplies will also be closely watched. The release is slated for 10:30 a.m. ET. Oil prices rose back above the $80 a barrel benchmark ahead of the report, with a barrel of U.S. light sweet crude up 51 to $80.04 in early electronic trading.

In other major news, executives from debt rating agencies Moody's (Charts) and McGraw-Hill (Charts, Fortune 500) unit Standard & Poor's are due to testify before the Senate Banking Committee. The agencies have been criticized for failing investors by being too slow to react to the subprime crisis.

In global trade, Asian markets finished the session mixed, while European stocks advanced in morning trading.