U.S. stock futures pointed to a slightly higher open Friday as oil prices declined and investors looked ahead to a speech by Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke.

Bernanke is scheduled to speak on financial stability at 10:00 ET in Jackson Hole, Wyo. Investors will be looking for insight into the current state of the U.S. banking system.

Bernanke’s remarks come amid widening speculation about a possible U.S. government bailout of mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac and renewed signs of distress in the credit markets.

Here at home, the Canadian dollar traded at US95.63¢ Friday morning, down 0.16 of a cent from Thursday’s close.

There are no major economic releases from Statistics Canada today.

Light, sweet crude oil prices fell 82¢ to US$120.36 a barrel in premarket electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange, after surging by more than US$5 a barrel on Thursday.

Overseas, Japan’s Nikkei stock average fell 0.68%.

In morning trading, the UK’s FTSE 100 rose 0.95%, Germany’s DAX index rose 0.61%, and France’s CAC-40 rose 0.60%.

On Thursday, energy and resources shares rallied on the back of stronger commodity prices, boosting the benchmark index of the Toronto Stock Exchange.

The S&P/TSX composite index rose 189.08 points, or 1.42%, to close at 13,539.22.

The TSX energy group rose 2.33%, and the materials group jumped 3.85%.

The junior S&P/TSX Venture composite index rose 29.93 points, or 1.56%, to 1,949.68.

In New York, the major U.S. indices ended mixed as surging oil prices drove up energy shares.

The Dow Jones industrial average was up 12.62 points, or 0.11%, at 11,430.05. The S&P 500 was up 3.17 points, or 0.25%, at 1,277.71. But the tech-heavy Nasdaq composite index was down 8.70 points, or 0.36%, at 2,380.38.