Stocks poised to extend rally

NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- U.S. stocks were set to trade higher at Thursday's open, with investors awaiting a slew of economic readings and interested in talk concerning troubled Wall Street bank Bear Stearns.

At 6:35 a.m. ET, futures were stronger, suggesting an upbeat start for Wall Street that would extend the past session's gains.

Stocks jumped Wednesday after General Motors (Charts, Fortune 500), the nation's largest automaker, reached a tentative labor agreement with the United Auto Workers union, ending a two-day strike. Shares of GM continued their recent climb Thursday, rising nearly 5 percent in early Frankfurt trading.

A report in the New York Times said investment bank Bear Stearns (Charts, Fortune 500) is in talks with a number of investors, including Warren Buffett, the chairman of investment firm Berkshire Hathaway (Charts), to sell as much as 20 percent of the firm, also helped fuel gains.

Investors also weighed the final reading on second-quarter gross domestic product, which showed the U.S. economy grew at an annual growth rate of 3.8 percent in the second quarter, down from the 4 percent pace in the previous estimate. Economists surveyed by Briefing.com had forecast a 3.9 percent growth in the latest reading.

In addition to providing the broadest measure of the nation's economic activity, the GDP report includes a key inflation measure that is closely watched, the so called core PCE deflator, which measures prices paid by consumers. It showed a 1.4 percent increase over the last 12-month gain, a bit higher than the previous reading of a 1.3 percent rise, but still well within the 1 to 2 percent range that is seen the Federal Reserve's comfort zone.

That moderate inflation reading and slightly slower than expected economic growth could give a green light for the central bank to again cut rates.

Another report on the housing sector - new home sales in August - is slated for release at 10 a.m. ET. Economists are forecasting the pace of sales will fall by 5 percent to an annual rate of 825,000, which would be a seven-year low.

In other major news, the group buying college loan provider Sallie Mae (Charts, Fortune 500) wants to back out of the $25 billion deal. The private equity firm and banks buying the company say they're open to renegotiating the terms of the deal. Sallie Mae has pledged legal action.

Software company Microsoft (Charts, Fortune 500) announced it sold about $170 million worth of its "Halo 3" video game in the 24 hours after the Xbox 360 game went on sale.

AMR Corp. (Charts, Fortune 500), the holding company for American Airlines, received a letter from FL Group, a $6 billion Icelandic investment fund with an 8.3 percent stake in the company, in which it urged it to look at selling off a number of its assets, including its frequent flier club and its regional feeder airline American Eagle, according to a report in the Wall Street Journal.

The paper says the letter estimates that AAdvantage mileage club is worth about $6 billion, which is more than the airline's $5.4 billion market value.

In global trade, Asian markets rallied, taking indexes in Hong Kong, Australian and Singapore to record highs, while European stocks jumped in morning trading. The dollar once again hit a record low versus the euro but was higher against the yen.

Oil prices rose in early trading as a tropical depression near Mexico raised concerns about possible disruptions to oil and gas production there. Light, sweet crude for November delivery rose 94 cents to $81.24 a barrel in electronic trading.