Stocks up at opening to kick off GDP week

Wall Street opened up slightly this morning on earnings news and a look ahead to the big news later this week -- the Fed's first look at third-quarter GDP.

In the first 15 minutes of trading, the Dow is up three-tenths of 1 percent.

The broader S&P 500 is up four-tenths of 1 percent and the tech-heavy Nasdaq is up nearly seven-tenths of 1 percent.

Verizon kicked off this week's round of third-quarter earnings by reporting a less-than-expected 9 percent drop in profits, pushing shares upward. Verizon does not have the popular iPhone on its network -- which helped rival AT&T add 2 million new subscribers this quarter -- but Verizon still managed to add 1.2 million new subscribers, beating estimates.

On Thursday, the Fed will release its first pass on third-quarter GDP, a real measure of the economy's health and recovery. This is the quarter when analysts expect it to turn positive, a technical sign that we're out of recession.

-- Frank Ahrens
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