NEW YORK�U.S. stock futures edged higher, with Comcast's multibillion dollar deal to buy the rest of NBC's parent and some encouraging European data providing a positive backdrop ahead of retail sales data.
About 90 minutes ahead of the open, Dow Jones Industrial Average futures advanced 19 points, or 0.1%, to 13992. The Dow closed up 47 points, or 0.3%, on Tuesday, the highest level since Oct. 12, 2007.
Standard & Poor's 500-stock index futures rose three points, or 0.2%, to 1519 and Nasdaq 100 futures gained eight points, or 0.3%, to 2769.
Changes in stock futures don't always accurately predict stock moves after the opening bell.
In the Markets- Morning MarketBeat: The State of Consumer Spending is Not Strong
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Data on retail sales for January are due at 8:30 a.m. EST. The median estimate of economists surveyed by Dow Jones Newswires is for growth of 0.1% on the month, or 0.2% when excluding auto sales. Also at 8:30 a.m., import prices in January are seen rising 0.8%. December business inventories, due at 10 a.m., are expected to increase 0.1%.
Among early stock movers, Comcast rallied 8.4% in premarket trading after the cable operator said it was buying the remaining 49% of NBCUniversal that it doesn't own from General Electric for $16.7 billion. Dow component GE gained 2.8%.
In Europe, the Stoxx Europe 600 erased earlier losses to nudge up 0.1%, after euro-zone industrial production rose more than expected in December. Still, the overall decline for the fourth quarter was at the steepest quarterly rate in more than three years.
Separately, the Bank of England said inflation is expected to rise further in the near term, while economic growth would remain slow. But BOE Gov. Mervyn King said the central bank would allow inflation to rise above target levels in order to support economic growth. The U.K.'s FTSE 100 index rose less than 0.1%.
Asian markets were mostly higher, but Japanese stocks fell as overnight strength in the yen hurt exporter shares. Japan's Nikkei Stock Average shed 1%. The yen strengthened to about 92.79 against the dollar, or 0.7% above levels seen in late New York trading on Tuesday, before pulling back.
Meanwhile, Australia's S&P ASX 200 gained 0.9% to the highest level since September 2008. Markets in Hong Kong and Shanghai remained closed for the Lunar New Year Holiday.
The dollar was last up slightly against the yen, but was down against the euro. Front-month March crude-oil futures tacked on 0.3% to $97.85 a barrel, while February gold futures declined 0.1% to $1,647.70 an ounce.
In other corporate news, Bankrate slumped 21% after the financial-information provider's fourth-quarter earnings and revenue missed expectations, amid weakness in its lead-generation business, and following a downbeat 2013 outlook.
Deere ticked up less than 0.1% after the farm-machinery maker reported fiscal first-quarter earnings that revenue that exceeded forecasts, citing strength in its agriculture and turf-equipment businesses.
Cliffs Natural Resources slid 14% after the mining company reported fourth-quarter adjusted earnings that topped estimates, but said it planned to publicly sell 9 million shares of common stock to help fund the repayment of debt. The company also said it was delaying some project expansions and idling other production because of weaker coal demand.
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