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Wall Street could extend records as futures rise; Alibaba to debut

[September 19, 2014]  NEW YORK (Reuters) - U.S. stock index futures were rising early on Friday, building on record highs set in the previous session by the Dow industrials and S&P 500 and ahead of the debut of Alibaba Group on the New York Stock Exchange.

Alibaba priced its initial public offering on Thursday at $68 a share, the top end of the expected range, giving it more market value than U.S. e-commerce rivals Amazon and eBay.

Shares of Yahoo, which is selling part of its Alibaba stake but will remain a top shareholder, were among the most traded on the Nasdaq. Yahoo has risen 4.1 percent so far this year, compared with a 10 percent gain in the Nasdaq Composite.

Oracle shares fell 3 percent premarket after Larry Ellison, co-founder and leader for 37 years, stepped aside as chief executive officer. He will be replaced by co-CEOs Safra Catz and Mark Hurd, raising questions about a job-sharing arrangement that has had mixed records elsewhere.

The Conference Board's Leading Economic Index for August is due at 10:00 a.m.. The index posted a 0.9 percent increase in July.

(Reporting by Rodrigo Campos; Editing by Jeffrey Benkoe)

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