S&P Poised to Continue Charge Higher

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The S&P 500 was set to continue climbing higher Friday after notching its longest winning streak in more than six years in the previous session as traders cheered upbeat corporate earnings and data from Germany.

Today's Markets 

As of 8:06 a.m. ET, Dow Jones Industrial Average futures rose 34 points to 13815, S&P 500 futures climbed 4.3 points to 1496 and Nasdaq 100 futures advanced 10.8 points to 2729.

Not even Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) could halt Wall Street's New Year's rally. The Dow and S&P 500 are both trading at their highest levels since 2007, before the financial crisis roiled the markets. The blue-chip average is also having its best start to the year since 1987.

Sentiment got another lift on Friday after Procter & Gamble (NYSE:PG) unveiled quarterly earnings and sales that easily beat expectations. The blue-chip consumer products company also lifted its full-year outlook. Halliburton (NYSE:HAL), one of the world's biggest oilfield-servicing companies, also posted stronger-than-expected results on the top and bottom lines.

Still, Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) posted mixed results after the close on Thursday. Its profits beat forecasts, but sales came in slightly shy.

Then in Europe, a closely-watched survey from the Ifo Institute showed business sentiment in Germany rising for the third month in a row in January. The data suggest that Europe's biggest economy could be picking up steam even as neighbors are still reeling from the impact of the continent's debt crisis.

"The IFO suggests the German economy is improving more quickly than the rest of the region, and in stark contrast to the information available for other core countries such as France, where survey data for January have weakened and surprised to the downside," analysts at Nomura wrote in a note to clients.

Indeed, data released Friday showed the U.K. economy contracted by 0.3% in the fourth quarter, a steeper decline than the 0.1% economists expected.

There is also a report on the U.S. housing market due at 10:00 a.m. ET. Sales of new, single-family homes are forecast to have climbed to an annualized rate of 385,000 units in December from 377,000 the month before.

Oil prices ticked higher. The benchmark contract climbed 35 cents, or 0.36%, to $96.30 a barrel. Wholesale New York harbor gasoline dipped 0.02% to $2.862 a gallon. In metals, gold fell $5.00, or 0.3%, to $1,665 a troy ounce.

Foreign Markets

The Euro Stoxx 50 climbed 0.78% to 2744, the English FTSE 100 rose 0.18% to 6276 and the German DAX rallied 1.3% to 7845.

In Asia, the Japanese Nikkei 225 surged 2.9% to 10927 and the Chinese Hang Seng fell 0.08% to 23580.

Follow Adam Samson on Twitter @adamsamson.