Stock futures rise ahead of Yellen's speech

By Tanya Agrawal

Specialist trader Frank Masiello works at a trading post on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange May 20, 2015.

Reuters/Brendan McDermid

U.S. stock index futures were higher on Friday, a day after the S&P 500 ended at an all-time high and ahead of Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen's take on the economy that investors will peruse for clues on the timing of a rate hike.* Yellen's speech at 1:00 p.m. ET (1700 GMT) is expected to acknowledge the recent economic sluggishness, including near stagnant performance in the first few months of the year.
* Before Yellen takes the podium, data is expected to show that consumer prices rose for a third straight month in April, signaling a rise in inflation, which could keep the Fed on
track to raise rates. The Consumer Price Index data is
due at 8:30 a.m. ET (1230 GMT).
* The S&P 500 .SPX ended at 2,130.82 on Thursday, barely beating its previous record close of 2,129.2 from Monday.
* While the Dow and the S&P are near record levels this week, trading has stayed in a narrow range and volumes have been subdued as the quarterly earnings season draws to a close.
* Aeropostale (ARO.N) slumped 22.8 percent to $2 in premarket trading after the teen apparel retailer estimated a bigger-than-expected quarterly loss.
* ELong (LONG.O) soared 35.8 percent to $28.04 after Expedia (EXPE.O) said it sold its entire stake in the Chinese online travel company to rival Ctrip.com (CTRP.O) and others. Ctrip was up 4.9 percent at $75.50.
* Foot Locker (FL.N) was up 3.9 percent at $66.10 and Deere & Co (DE.N) rose 1.8 percent to $91.05 after the companies posted better-than-expected quarterly profits.
* BlackBerry (BBRY.O) shares rose 2.2 percent to $10.50 on the smartphone maker's plans to buy back stock.
Futures snapshot at 7:24 a.m. ET (1124 GMT): * S&P 500 e-minis ESc1 were up 0.5 points, or 0.02 percent, with 57,049 contracts traded. * Nasdaq 100 e-minis NQc1 were up 3.5 points, or 0.08 percent, on volume of 7,831 contracts. * Dow e-minis 1YMc1 were up 14 points, or 0.08 percent, with 12,980 contracts changing hands.