NEW YORK (AP) -- Stocks headed for a sharply higher open Friday, with the technology sector enlivened by an unsolicited Microsoft Corp. bid to take over Internet search company Yahoo Inc.
Microsoft is offering $31 a share per share for Yahoo, or a total of $44.6 billion, representing a 62 percent premium to Yahoo's closing stock price Thursday. Merger news, which has been in short supply for months, tends to energize the stock market.
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Investors are also waiting for the Labor Department's January employment report to give them clues about the state of the economy. They should be relieved if jobs generation and the employment rate show strength.
A number of economists have voiced concern that the U.S. already has entered a recession. But a strong employment report would suggest that enough workers are employed to keep consumer spending at healthy levels and keep the economy churning.
Economists surveyed by Thomson/IFR are forecasting that 70,000 jobs were created in January. That would be a sharp improvement over just 18,000 jobs in December. Yet before the mortgage crisis that began last summer, jobs growth of 100,000 was considered the norm. The report is due at 8:30 a.m. Eastern time before the opening of trade.
The futures contract for the Dow Jones industrial average advanced 103 points, or 0.8 percent, to 12,717. Futures contracts for the Standard & Poor's 500 index rose 10.10 points, or 0.7 percent, to 1,389.70 and the Nasdaq 100 contract gained 15 points, or 0.8 percent, to 1,862.8.