THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT.  THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED. CAROL LIN, CNN ANCHOR: But first, we're going to go to New York with a check in with David Haffenreffer on business. How's it shaping up, David?</s>DAVID HAFFENREFFER, CNN FINANCIAL NEWS CORRESPONDENT: Well, things are looking fairly strong at this hour, Carol, and Wall Street could build on yesterday's strong gains. The stock index futures pointing to a higher open for the Street this morning. Stock markets in Europe are also surging this morning following the highest close for the U.S. markets yesterday since the September terrorist attacks. Wednesday, the Dow industrials added 188 points and the Nasdaq composite gained 56. Earnings reports will be one focus of the market today. Dow component General Electric is expected to hand in its quarterly report card this morning. And Costco, the warehouse club store, says profits fell 5 percent but sales rose as consumers continued to buy food and staples in this slowing economy. We are also expecting September sales figures for many big retail stores. At 8:30 a.m. Eastern time, weekly jobless figures are expected to fall slightly but still remain above the 500,000 level. And investors will want to pay attention to a speech by Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan. That's at about 2:20 p.m. Eastern in St. Louis. That is a preview of our business day today. TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
America Recovers:  Futures Pointing to a Higher Open this Morning