Investors feeling chipper
Futures point to higher open as No. 1 chipmaker Intel gives outlook that reassures recession-weary investors; JPMorgan results, inflation, home building readings on tap.
NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- Stock futures rose early Wednesday, lifted by an upbeat outlook from chip giant Intel and better than expected results from JPMorgan Chase.
About two hours before the market open, Nasdaq and S&P futures were higher and indicating gains for Wall Street. Techs were poised to lead the advance.
Tech heavyweight Intel (INTC, Fortune 500), which is a Dow Jones industrials component, reported first-quarter sales and offered full-year guidance late Tuesday that exceeded Wall Street estimates.
The strong results helped offset worries about the impact that the credit crunch and slowing economy will have on corporate profits.
Also reassuring investors were solid results from JPMorgan Chase (JPM, Fortune 500), the nation's No. 3 bank, which took a $2.6 billion writedown of assets that ate into results but still managed to post a better-than- forecast profit of $2.4 billion, or 68 cents a share, in the first quarter. Analysts surveyed by First Call had forecast earnings-per-share of 64 cents.
Still due to report results before the open is another major bank, Wells Fargo (WFC, Fortune 500). Analysts are looking for EPS there to fall 14% from a year earlier.
Washington Mutual (WM, Fortune 500), the nation's largest thrift, reported more details Tuesday of a $1.1 billion first-quarter loss that it had announced last week. WaMu was forced to set aside more money for bad loans, but still its shares rose 1.8% in after-hours trading.
Another financial giant to watch is Merrill Lynch (MER, Fortune 500), which is slated to post results Thursday. The bank is expected to post a loss and take $6 billion to $8 billion in mortgage-related writedowns, according to a report in the Wall Street Journal Wednesday.
The Journal also reported that there are growing concerns that banks around the world are not reporting high rates they're paying for short-term loans. That in turn is creating doubts about the London inter-bank offered rate, known as Libor, a key measure of the health of the global financial system. Libor is a rate calculated daily that is used to set rates on trillions of dollars in corporate debt, home mortgages and financial contracts.
While a Libor rate that is lower than actual results suggests it should be is good news for those borrowers, it could suggest greater problems ahead for banks, according to the Journal. It also raises the risk of an interest rate shock to come if the rate undergoes an adjustment in how it is calculated. The British Bankers' Association, which oversees Libor, is now investigating suspicions that there rate is artificially low, according to the report.
Economic reports due at 8:30 a.m. ET could also affect futures. The Labor Department will release the March Consumer Price Index at that time, the government's key inflation reading. Economists surveyed by Briefing.com forecast that overall retail prices jumped 0.3% in the month, after being unchanged in February, while the so-called core CPI, which strips out food and energy prices, is forecast to be up 0.2% after also being unchanged in the previous period.
But the government's Producer Price Index, the measure of inflation at the wholesale level, posted on Tuesday a 1.1% rise in March, or nearly twice as big a jump as forecasts. A bad reading on CPI could raise fears that inflation pressures could keep the Federal Reserve from acting aggressively to try to ward off a recession.
Also at 8:30 a.m. the Commerce Department will report housing starts and building permits. Both could see 17-year lows for single family homes, as economists are forecasting overall starts fell once again to an annual rate of 1.01 million from 1.07 million in February. Permits, which are taken as a reading of builders' confidence in the market,, are seen falling to an annual rate of 970,000 from 984,000 in February.
Crude prices hit yet another record trading high in early electronic trading ahead of the weekly report on U.S. fuel supplies, due at 10:30 a.m. ET. A barrel of light, sweet crude rose 53 cents above Tuesday's record close to $114.32, although that was off of the earlier high of $114.53.
One factor lifting oil prices is weakness in the dollar. The euro hit yet another record high versus the dollar as the greenback also fell versus the Japanese yen.
In other corporate news, the number of U.S. consumers clicking on search ads at Google (GOOG, Fortune 500) was weak once again in March, according to data released late Tuesday that some analysts said raised questions about the leader in online search will be able to meet consensus estimates when it reports first quarter results on Thursday. But Google's share of the search market still gained on rivals Yahoo (YHOO, Fortune 500), according to the same report from tracking service comScore. Shares of Google rose 1% in after-hours trading while Yahoo shares fell 1%.
In global trade, Japan stocks rose. Major markets in Europe also advanced in early trading. 
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