Money Watch

Stocks to open higher today

Posted: Aug 7, 2012 6:00 AM by CNNMoney

NEW YORK (CNNMoney) -- U.S. stocks were headed for a higher open Tuesday as investors gear up for another batch of corporate earnings, and hold out hopes that European officials are working on a plan to stave off a eurozone collapse.

U.S. stock futures were up between 0.2% and 0.5% early Tuesday.

Investors remain optimistic that European officials will follow through, after Mario Draghi's comments last week in support of a bond-buying program to help lower borrowing costs in Spain and Italy.

On the domestic front, investors will receive a slew of earnings reports. Results are due in the morning from CVS Caremark, MGM Resorts and Sirius XM Radio.

Disney, one of the Dow's best performers this year, reports after the bell. Results due later in the week include News Corp, Macy's and J.C. Penney.

While many bellwether companies have already reported second-quarter results, investors are still watching corporate earnings for clues about the health of the broader economy.

U.S. stocks closed higher Monday amid continued momentum from Friday's upbeat jobs report and lower borrowing costs in Spain and Italy. The situation in both countries remains precarious, however, with fears looming that Spain may soon need a bailout.

World markets: European stocks were mixed in morning trading. Britain's FTSE 100 shed 0.4%, the DAX in Germany edged higher 0.1% and France's CAC 40 added 0.4%.

Asian markets finished higher. The Shanghai Composite ticked up 0.1%, the Hang Seng in Hong Kong rose 0.4% and Japan's Nikkei gained 0.9%.

Economy: At 3 p.m. ET, the Federal Reserve will release data on June consumer credit, which is expected to have expanded by $10 billion versus the month prior, according to a survey of analysts by Briefing.com.

Companies: CVS is expected to report quarterly earnings of 79 cents a share on $30.97 billion in revenue, according to a survey of analysts by Thomson Reuters.

MGM is tipped to report a loss of 15 cents a share on $2.34 billion in revenue, while Sirius is expected to post earnings of 2 cents a share on $834 million in revenue.

Chesapeake Energy, which has been in the spotlight amid takeover chatter and a management shakeup, posted second-quarter results that beat sales expectations.

Shares of British banking giant Standard Chartered fell more than 24% in London trading. The bank allegedly helped Iran avoid sanctions by concealing $250 billion worth of transactions over nearly 10 years, according to banking regulators in New York.

Currencies and commodities: The dollar fell against the euro and British pound, but rose versus the Japanese yen.

Oil for September delivery rose 4 cents to $92.24 a barrel.

Gold futures for August delivery fell 20 cents to $1,612.70 an ounce.

Bonds: The price on the benchmark 10-year U.S. Treasury fell, pushing the yield up slightly to 1.57% from 1.56% late Monday.