Stock rally may have legs
Tech-heavy Nasdaq aims to extend winning streak to five straight sessions; Paulson speech on deck.
NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- Stocks looked set to extend their rally Friday, although a report on the battered housing sector could pressure sentiment.
At 7 a.m. ET, Nasdaq and S&P futures were slightly higher and pointing to a positive start on Wall Street.
Stocks rallied Thursday, led by strong gains in the tech sector. The Nasdaq has racked up gains the past four sessions, while the Dow and S&P 500 have advanced for the past two sessions.
On the agenda Friday are a report on housing starts and building permits. Economists surveyed by Briefing.com forecast that both hit 17-year lows in April as homebuilders continued to slam the brakes on new construction.
A survey Thursday showed builders had the most pessimistic view of the current housing market on record, with only 6% seeing it as good and nearly 70% seeing it as poor.
Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson is also due to speak about the housing and the credit crunch at noon ET in Washington.
Companies to watch include Yahoo (YHOO, Fortune 500), which responded late Thursday to activist investor Carl Icahn's plan to unseat the company's board. In a letter that the Internet bellwether sent to the activist investor, it said Icahn had "a significant misunderstanding of the facts about the Microsoft proposal."
Icahn has launched a battle for control of Yahoo's board in the hopes of rekindling takeover talks with Microsoft (MSFT, Fortune 500). Yahoo shares slipped 0.2% in after-hours trading.
Icahn disclosed in a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission that he has purchased 6.3 million shares in drugmaker Amylin Pharmaceuticals (AMLN), giving him a 4.6% stake in the maker of diabetes drugs. It also showed he had dumped his 5.1 million shares in department store chain Macy's (M, Fortune 500), which had represented a 1.2% stake in the retailer, and his 2.9 million shares of railroad CSX (CSX, Fortune 500). Amylin shot up 7.4% in after-hours trading on the news, while CSX lost 0.5% and Macy's shares were little changed.
In a similar filing, investment guru Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway (BRK.A) Inc. disclosed Thursday that it had sold its stake in Ameriprise Financial (AMP, Fortune 500), the financial adviser firm. It sold 661,742 shares of the firm during the first quarter, equal to a 0.3% stake. Shares of Ameriprise fell 2.7% in after-hours trading after Berkshire's filing.
Oil prices again broke through the $125 a barrel mark, as the price of a barrel of light, sweet crude gained $1.47 to $125.59 in early electronic trading. Crude prices rose after Goldman Sachs commodity analysts raised their oil price projections. They now expect oil prices to average $141 a barrel in the second half of this year.
In global trade, Asian stocks finished mostly higher, although Japan's Nikkei dipped. European markets climbed in morning trading. 
