[R]9:45AM Wall Street opened higher, lifted by Morgan Stanley and Home Depot.[/R]

Wall Street opened higher, lifted by falling bond yields, better-than-forecast profit at Morgan Stanley and a $22.5 billion buyback at Home Depot. Shares of Morgan Stanley (MS: chart), No. 2 U.S. investment bank, rose 2% on 40% profit rise. Blue-chip stocks were led higher by Home Depot (HD: chart) whose shares surged nearly 7%.

Among other earnings-related movers, Circuit City (CC: chart) shares declined after the electronics retailer posted Q1 loss of 33 cents per share, compared with a profit of 4 cents a share last year, missing estimates of a loss of 32 cents per share. Revenue fell 4% to $2.49 billion, as more customers purchased low-margin products.

Further in earnings news, CarMax (KMX: chart) surged 9.4% after the retailer said its Q1net income rose 15% to $65.4 million, or 30 cents a share, from $56.8 million, or 27 cents a share a year ago, meeting analyst estimates. CarMax reaffirmed 2008 earnings forecast of $1.03-$1.14 a share.

FedEx (FDX: chart) rose 2% after the company reported a 7% quarterly profit rise. The company also settled an issue with Airbus over a cancelled order for the A380 superjumbo. The Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 14 points at 13,619The S&P 500 index fell 2.98 points to 1,530, while the Nasdaq Composite fell 4.9 points to 2,621.


[R]9:30AM The FTSE 100 advances in mid-day trading on strong mining stocks.[/R]

By mid-day, the FTSE 100 rose 0.6% to 6,689, a gain of 38.8 points.

Advancers

Goldman Sachs upped their share price targets on the six biggest miners, citing metals prices would continue to increae through 2008. The brokerage thinks platinum prices will strike top levels through 2009. South Africa-focused platinum miner Lonmin rose 2.9% and Vedanta Resources gained 3.8%. Anglo American rose 1.9%, while Xstrata, whose stock Goldman also upgraded to buy from hold, added 1.5%.

J Sainsbury advanced 0.9% after the supermarket group came out with results that showed lower-than-expected sales growth of 5.1% for its first quarter. Also, talk that French bank Société Générale was mulling a bid for Lloyds TSB saw shares in the British bank rise 1.6%.

Decliners

Cadbury Schweppes led decliners, losing 2.6% a day after the confectionary group intends to implement a drastic reorganisation plan involving 7,500 job cuts, factory closures, and the sale of its beverage businesses.

Electronics retailer DSG International declined 1.1% after it reported a 5% decline in full-year profits to 295.1 million pounds. The stock also dropped on DSG decision not to enter the Russian market after a review of how other retailers had performed there.

Asia-focused bank Standard Chartered declined 1 % despite it announcing it was performing very strongly in the year to date and was about to meet full-year profit growth of 17 %.


[R]9:00AM U.S. stock futures advanced, boosted by Morgan Stanley earnings and $22.5 billion buyback at Home Depot.[/R]

U.S. stocks advanced in pre-open trading on Wednesday, boosted by higher-than-expected earnings from Morgan Stanley and lower bond yields. The bond market has continued its recovery, with the benchmark 10-year Treasury bond was down 5/32 to 95 11/32, yielding 5.103%.

Morgan Stanley (MS: chart) advanced 2.2% after posting 40% earnings increase, beating analyst estimates. Positive sentiment was also generated by a $22.5 billion share buy-back from Home Depot (HD: chart). The Dow component shares jumped 6.2% in the pre-open.

Among other pre-market highlights, Circuit City (CC: chart) dropped 2.6% in the pre-open after the electronics retailer posted Q1 loss of $54.6 million, or 33 cents per share, compared with a profit of $6.4 million, or 4 cents a share. Revenue fell 4% to $2.49 billion from $2.6 billion a year ago, as more customers purchased low-margin products. Analysts had expected a loss of 32 cents per share on revenue of $2.44 billion.