Stock Futures Rise on Spain Rescue Talk

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A report that Spain and the European Union are making headway on negotiations on a plan to help the country cut its borrowing costs pushed U.S. stock-index futures higher Friday.

Today's Markets

As of 8:11 a.m. ET, Dow Jones Industrial Average futures climbed 45 points to 13560, S&P 500 futures rose 4 points to 1458 and Nasdaq 100 futures gained 8.5 points to 2862.

The Financial Times reported, citing unnamed sources, that the group is working on an economic reform package that would pave the way for purchases of Spain's debt. The purpose of buying the debt is to drive down the country's borrowing costs on secondary markets. Spain has reportedly been reluctant to agree to a bailout of this sort out of fear that the conditions would be excessively tight.

Market participants also cited the release of Apple's (NASDAQ:AAPL) highly awaited iPhone 5 as a reason for the cheery mood on Wall Street. Expectations are for sales in the order of millions on opening day.

Also on the corporate front, Research in Motion (NASDAQ:RIMM) faced service issues in Europe, the Middle East and Africa. However, the company said before 8:00 a.m. ET that services had been restored.

There were no major economic reports on tap Friday.

In commodities, oil ticked up after falling for four days in a row. The benchmark contract traded in New York climbed 72 cents, or 0.78%, to $93.16 a gallon. Wholesale New York Harbor gasoline jumped 1.1% to $2.935 a gallon.

Gold rose $6.00, or 0.34%, to $1,776 a troy ounce.

Foreign Markets

The Euro Stoxx 50 edged up by 0.25% to 2570, the English FTSE 100 was flat at 5855 and the German DAX jumped 0.81% to 7450.

In Asia, the Japanese Nikkei 225 gained 0.25% to 9110 and the Chinese Hang Seng ticked up 0.7% to 20735.