April 28 (Bloomberg) -- U.S. stock futures rose as Wm. Wrigley Jr. Co. agreed to a $23 billion takeover bid, Kirk Kerkorian bought a stake in Ford Motor Co. and Verizon Communications Inc. posted higher earnings.

Wrigley, the world's biggest maker of chewing gum, jumped on Mars Inc.'s offer to buy the company for 28 percent more than its closing price last week. Ford rallied after investor Kerkorian said he has purchased a 4.7 percent stake in the second-largest U.S. automaker and plans to buy more. Verizon, the second-biggest U.S. phone company, climbed after customers spent more on text messaging and wireless Internet browsing. Futures pared gains after Warren Buffett told CNBC the U.S. economy is in a recession that won't be ``short and shallow.''

Standard & Poor's 500 Index futures expiring in June increased 1.8, or 0.1 percent, to 1,398.9 at 9:05 a.m. in New York. Dow Jones Industrial Average futures were unchanged at 12,875 and Nasdaq-100 Index futures gained 5.5 to 1,926.5. Shares in Asia and Europe rose.

``With a number of companies having their stocks being depressed in this environment, the strongest players are looking to take advantage of that, to come out of this downturn in a better strategic position than when they went in,'' Stefan Selig, the global head of mergers at Bank of America Corp., said in an interview with Bloomberg Television. ``There are a number of factors that will cause M&A activity to pick up.''

The S&P 500 has climbed 9.8 percent since reaching a 19- month low March 10, helped by earnings from Google Inc., Intel Corp., Boeing Co. and American Express Co. Earnings have topped analysts' estimates at 69 percent of the 239 companies in the index that have reported fist-quarter results so far, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.

`Further Rally'

Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. strategist Ian Scott, who advised investors to buy global stocks before the past month's rebound, said better-than-expected earnings will pave the way for a bigger rally.

``The market was priced in for a substantial `miss,''' Scott, managing director for global equity strategy at Lehman, wrote in the note dated April 25. ``This has patently not happened. These first-quarter numbers ought to provide the fuel for a further rally in the market.''

To contact the reporter on this story: Eric Martin in New York at emartin21@bloomberg.net

Last Updated: April 28, 2008 09:08 EDT