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The stock market is looking for a strong open today, helped by strong earnings from tech giant Microsoft Corp. (NASDAQ: MSFT), which is trading up 5% in premarket trading.

Last night Microsoft announced that it had earned 50 cents a share for its fiscal second quarter, which was easily above the 46 cents that analysts had been expecting to see from the company. What has really been driving the stock higher this morning, even more that its most recent quarterly numbers, is the fact that the company forecast full year earnings that were well above analyst estimates. For its full fiscal year 2008, the company is now expecting to earn between $1.85 to $1.88 a share, on sales of $59.9 billion to $60.5 billion. This was above the $1.81 earning on sales of $59.4 billion that analysts were expecting.

After a disappointing forecast from competitor Apple Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL) earlier this week, a strong outlook from Microsoft could be just what the market needed to put some of its fears aside regarding just how bad of shape the overall economy is in.

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