Stock Futures Signal Higher Open; Earnings From Energy Majors, Factory Orders Data In Focus

Following a strong showing in October and modest gains on the first day of the new month, futures suggest stocks could open higher on Monday accompanied by a fresh batch of quarterly earnings announcements and data releases.

Futures on the Dow Jones Industrial Average were up 0.13 percent and those on the Standard & Poor's 500 Index were up 0.1 percent, while futures on the Nasdaq 100 Index were up 0.27 percent.

Analysts expect the rally to continue in U.S. stocks with CNN Money reporting, citing Schaeffer's Investment Research, that the S&P 500 has gained in November more than 60 percent of the time in the last 30 years, and the last two months of the calendar year have historically been even stronger in years when stocks have rallied during the first quarter.

In earnings, companies including CME Group Inc. (NASDAQ:CME), Kellogg Co. (NYSE:K), Spectra Energy Corp. (NYSE:SE) and Sysco Corp. (NYSE:SYY) will announce quarterly results before markets open. Anadarko Petroleum Corp. (NYSE:APC), Marathon Oil Corp. (NYSE:MRO) and Newfield Exploration Co. (NYSE:NFX) are scheduled to announce results after market hours.

On the data front, factory orders, which show the amount of new orders for durable and nondurable goods in dollars for September, will be released at 10 a.m. Eastern time.

In Europe, stocks were up, helped along by strong results from banking bellwether, HSBC (NYSE:HBC), which posted a 30 percent jump in profits. The Stoxx Europe 600 index was up 0.21 percent while London’s FTSE 100 was up 0.3 percent. Germany's DAX-30 was up 0.22 percent and France's CAC-40 was trading up 0.19 percent.

In Asia, on the other hand, markets were down. Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 was down 0.38 percent while South Korea’s Kospi was down 0.7 percent. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng was down 0.26 percent while the Shanghai Composite was flat. Japan’s Nikkei and India’s BSE Sensex were both closed for a public holiday in their respective countries.