Oracle, Research In Motion in focus after earnings; oil edges lower LONDON (MarketWatch) -- U.S. stock market futures pointed to a third straight session of losses Friday as investors waited for news of a bailout for the auto industry, while oil prices continued to edge lower as demand worries outweighed the recent production cut. S&P 500 futures fell 5.20 points at 887.30 and Nasdaq 100 futures lost 7.50 points at 1,218.00. Dow industrial futures gave up 68 points. U.S. stocks ended lower Thursday, with energy-related shares pacing losses after the price of crude oil fell to a four-year low. The Dow Jones Industrial Average lost 219.35 points, the S&P 500 Index fell 19.08 points and the Nasdaq Composite Index gave up 26.94 points. The dollars rose sharply against the euro, but continued its downward path against the yen. The greenback was recently down 0.7% at 88.86 yen, while the euro dropped 1.9% to $1.402. Light crude for January delivery fell 12 cents to $36.10 a barrel in electronic trading, having dipped as low as $35.62 a barrel. The Wall Street Journal reported that an announcement on initial federal help for auto makers could come as early as today, citing White House officials. The potential aid comes after reports Thursday that General Motors Corp. and Chrysler had jumped back into merger talks. Shares of GM were down nearly 6% in Frankfurt trading. Also in focus will be Oracle Corp. , which late Thursday issued a brighter forecast than Wall Street expected, saying it would make a profit of 31 cents to 33 cents a share excluding one-off items in its fiscal third quarter. Also late Thursday, Research In Motion reported a 7% rise in fiscal third-quarter earnings and surprised investors with a better-than-expected forecast for the current quarter due to strong demand for new BlackBerry devices. In international markets Japan's Nikkei 225 fell 0.9% and the U.K.'s FTSE 100 index lost 2.3%.

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