Stocks Seen Higher; Oil Eases Before Data By Michael Flaherty NEW YORK (Reuters) - U.S. stock futures pointed to a higher market open on Wednesday, with oil prices slipping and momentum from Tuesday's rally helping to fuel the market. Shares of Research In Motion Ltd. (RIM.TO: Quote , Profile , Research ) (RIMM.O: Quote , Profile , Research ) fell, a day after reporting a sharply higher third-quarter profit on sales for its BlackBerry wireless e-mail device. Investors were disappointed that RIM failed to increase its sales forecast for the current quarter. RIM shares fell $4.96, or 5.7 percent, to $82.08 in pre-market trade on the Inet electronic brokerage. Microsoft Corp. (MSFT.O: Quote , Profile , Research ) , meanwhile, lost a European Union court appeal against sanctions imposed by EU regulators that would force it to change business practices and sell a stripped-down version of Windows. S&P 500 futures were up 0.4 point, above fair value accounting for dividends, interest rates and time to expiration on the contract. Dow Jones industrial index futures rose a point, while Nasdaq 100 futures were also up a point. "It's the Santa Claus rally," said Jon Brorson, managing director of growth equities at Neuberger Berman, referring to the historic year-end market boost that occurs around the Christmas holiday. "There is just a generally warm feeling right now, and I think people are wanting to put their money at work and accept some risk." In other corporate news, the chief executive and chief financial officer of U.S. mortgage finance giant Fannie Mae (FNM.N: Quote , Profile , Research ) stepped down late on Tuesday after regulators exposed accounting errors that are expected to force a massive earnings restatement. Fannie Mae's board of directors said that CEO Franklin Raines was retiring and Chief Financial Officer Timothy Howard was resigning. After months of drama about Fannie Mae's operating methods, the Securities and Exchange Commission last week determined the company would have to correct substantial errors in its financial reports. Oil prices eased on mild U.S. weather as traders waited to see whether the first cold snap of the U.S. winter has eaten into low heating fuel supplies. U.S. light crude (CLc1: Quote , Profile , Research ) futures edged down 22 cents to $45.54 a barrel. U.S. inventory data from the Energy Information Administration (EIA) is released at 10:30 a.m. (1530 GMT). The dip in oil prices has brought relief to investors worried that higher energy prices will pinch corporate profits. The biggest heating oil market in the world, the Northeast has just seen its first blast of cold, probably causing inventories of distillates to fall by 1.0 million barrels, according to a Reuters poll of analysts.     Continued ... Quelle "Stocks Seen Higher; Oil Eases Before Data" : reuters.com Main page for "Stocks Seen Higher; Oil Eases Before Data"