(by Mark Riley)

S&P 500 futures expiring in September added 2.10 to 1085 as of 7:36 a.m. in New York. Dow Jones Industrial Average futures gained 15 to 9964 and Nasdaq-100 Index futures rose 3.50 to 1376.50.

Verizon rose 82 cents to $37.32 on the Inet ATS trading system. Second-quarter profit surged to $1.8 billion from $338 million in the same period last year. Earnings per share of 64 cents exceeded the average analyst forecast of 60 cents in a Thomson Financial survey.

A private report today may show consumer confidence in the U.S. economy held at the highest level in two years in July as the labor market improved.

The Conference Board’s gauge of consumer sentiment, which will be published at 10 a.m. in New York, may have risen to 102 this month from 101.9 in June, according to the median forecast of 52 economists in a Bloomberg News survey.