US STOCKS-Wall St to rise ahead of key data, Ford shares up
* Housing, construction, manufacturing data on tap
* Ford posts profit, shares rise
* CIT bankruptcy puts financials in spotlight
* For up-to-the-minute market news, click [STXNEWS/US]
(Adds new quote, updates prices)
NEW YORK, Nov 2 (Reuters) - U.S. stock index futures pointed to a higher open on Monday ahead of data expected to show the U.S. manufacturing sector grew in October alongside improved global manufacturing.
Ford Motor Co (F.N) shares rose 8 percent to $7.56 in premarket trading after the U.S. carmaker surprised Wall Street with a quarterly profit supported by cost cuts, improved credit results, and increased market share. For details see [ID:nN02411585].
Factory activity in the euro zone expanded for the first time in 17 months and picked up in Britain and China, suggesting a global economic recovery is underway. [ID:nSP62642].
Crude futures CLc1 rose 0.7 percent and the Reuters/Jefferies CRB commodities index .CRB added 0.6 percent as the data helped to allay fears about the pace of the rebound in global demand for commodities.
U.S. manufacturing data from the Institute of Supply Management is due at 10 a.m. EST (1500 GMT) and is expected to show growth in the sector for the third-straight month.
The uptick in global manufacturing shows "things are still on track as far a world production, and that is good for the world economy," said Scott Marcouiller, senior equity market strategist at Wells Fargo Advisors in St. Louis.
Even with Ford posting "some pretty solid numbers," Marcouiller said, "the market is past earnings and has moved on to economic data."
The banking sector could be in the spotlight after CIT Group Inc CIT.N, a U.S. lender to hundreds of thousands of small and medium-sized businesses, filed for bankruptcy on Sunday. For stories on CIT see [ID:nN01476782].
The bankruptcy filing by a lender with as many clients as CIT is definitely a negative, but was already priced into the steep market decline on Friday, said Peter Cardillo, chief market economist at Avalon Partners in New York.
S&P 500 futures SPc1 rose 5.5 points and were above fair value, a formula that evaluates pricing by taking into account interest rates, dividends and time to expiration on the contract. Dow Jones industrial average futures DJc1 gained 43 points and Nasdaq 100 futures NDc1 added 3.5 points. Continued...
