Indications: U.S. stock futures gain; Obama remarks awaited

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By Polya Lesova, MarketWatch

FRANKFURT (MarketWatch) -- U.S. stock futures rose on Friday, as concern about Deutsche Bank weighed on sentiment in Europe, while investors awaited U.S. President Barack Obama's news conference for any comments on the economy.

Futures on the Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 24 points to 10,428 and S&P 500 futures rose 4.20 points to 1,101.80.

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Nasdaq 100 futures advanced 7 points to 1,890.20.

A decline in weekly jobless claims and an improved trade deficit fueled gains for Wall Street on Thursday. The blue-chip Dow index /quotes/comstock/10w!i:dji/delayed (DJIA 10,415, +28.23, +0.27%) rose 0.3%, bringing its month-to-date gains to 4%.

"Without compelling economic data, it's hard to get overly excited about the very short-term prospects," said Marc Pado, U.S. market strategist at Cantor Fitzgerald.

"There's a lot more exciting economic data out next week," Pado said in a note to clients. "Today is Friday, which has seen light volume and moves that tend to be reversed on the following Monday."

The economic calendar is thin, with wholesale inventories for July scheduled for release at 10 a.m. Eastern Time.

Investors are likely to turn their attention to Obama's news conference at the White House. Any comments on the state of the economy will be closely watched. The news conference is due to begin at 11 a.m. Eastern, according to media reports.

In Asia, most equity markets finished with gains, as data showed that China's trade surplus narrowed to $20 billion in August.

European stock markets traded broadly lower, however, with the Stoxx Europe 600 index /quotes/comstock/22c!sxxp (ST:SXXP 264.71, -0.38, -0.14%) dropping 0.2% in afternoon trading.

Shares of Deutsche Bank AG /quotes/comstock/13*!db/quotes/nls/db (DB 59.99, -1.97, -3.18%) /quotes/comstock/11e!fdbk (DE:DBK 47.84, +0.36, +0.75%) fell more than 4% on the Xetra trading platform. A media report said the German bank may be looking to raise as much as 9 billion euros ($11.4 billion) by selling new stock.

On the positive side, shares of Nokia Corp. /quotes/comstock/13*!nok/quotes/nls/nok (NOK 9.76, +0.06, +0.62%) /quotes/comstock/22u!noki-sek (FI:NOK1V 8.04, +0.30, +3.81%) rallied 4% in Helsinki after the mobile-phone maker announced the appointment of a Canadian-born executive from Microsoft Corp. /quotes/comstock/15*!msft/quotes/nls/msft (MSFT 24.01, +0.08, +0.33%) to be its next chief executive. U.S.-listed shares of Nokia gained 5% in premarket trading. Read more on Nokia's new CEO.

Texas Instruments Inc. /quotes/comstock/13*!txn/quotes/nls/txn (TXN 23.84, +0.16, +0.68%) will also be in focus as investors digest its latest earnings and sales outlook issued after the closing bell on Thursday.

In the commodity markets, crude-oil futures rose $1.68, or 2.3%, to $75.93 a barrel in electronic trading on Globex. The International Energy Agency revised slightly higher its estimate for global oil demand for 2010, but it warned that there is a continuing "significant downside risk" to its forecasts if the world economy were to stall.

The dollar index /quotes/comstock/11j!i:dxy0 (DXY 82.77, +0.10, +0.12%) , which tracks the performance of the greenback against a basket of other major currencies, fell 0.1% to 82.569. The euro /quotes/comstock/21o!x:seurusd (EURUSD 1.2693, -0.0001, -0.0079%) gained 0.3% to $1.2725.

Polya Lesova is MarketWatch's London bureau chief.

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