Stocks are indicated modestly higher, helped by better-than-expected earnings from Microsoft (MSFT) and others Friday. Forty-five minutes before the opening bell on Wall Street, stock index futures hint at a possible 15 or 20 point early gain for the Dow Jones Industrial Average.

Microsoft will help both the Dow and the NAZ in early trading after the software giant reported a quarterly profit of 40 cents per share on $12.92 billion in revenues. Analysts were expecting 32 cents on 12.32 billion. MSFT is up 7.9 percent in pre-market action.

Amazon.com (AMZN) added 17.5 percent after the online retailer said it earned 45 cents per share for the quarter, which beat Street estimates by 12 cents. Third quarter revenues also beat expectations and AMZN also guided fourth quarter sales numbers higher.

Ingersoll Rand (IR), Honeywell (HON), Fortune Brands (FO), and Whirpool (WHR) are also trading higher on earnings news.

On the economic front, a report on existing home sales is this week’s last economic stat. Economists expect the report, due out at 10:00 a.m. eastern time, to show an increase to an annualized rate of 5.35 million in September, up from 5.1 million the month before.

Bonds are lower ahead of the news. The benchmark ten-year Treasury is down 11/32nd and now yields 3.456 percent.

The dollar gained .65 to 91.95 against the yen. The euro edged up .0005 to 1.5025 against the buck.

Finally, crude oil added 21 cents to $81.40 and gold added $8.4 to $1067 an ounce.