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 Meanwhile, oil prices rose above $93 a barrel to a new trading high overnight after Mexico's state oil company said it was suspending about a fifth of its oil production due to a storm. A barrel of light sweet crude rose 96 cents to $92.82 in premarket trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange.
Higher energy prices will likely lead to a rally in commodity stocks. Mining companies rose in European trading as gold prices continued to strengthen.
Dow Jones industrial average futures rose 50.00, or 0.31 percent, to 13,898.00. Standard & Poor's 500 index futures rose 5.30, or 0.34 percent, to 1,547.90. Nasdaq 100 index futures rose 14.75, or 0.67 percent, to 2,222.00.
Wall Street finished last week higher, with the Dow up 2.11 percent, the Nasdaq rising 2.90 percent, and the S&P 500 up 2.31 percent. The gains were welcome after all three indexes posted losses in the previous week.
Investors will also be closely monitoring developments at Merrill Lynch & Co. Stan O'Neal, the brokerage's beleaguered chief executive, was reportedly close to resigning amid broad criticism for leading the company to its biggest quarterly loss since it was founded 93 years ago. An announcement was expected to come as soon as Monday while Merrill's board finalizes details of the dismissal, and begins to search for a replacement.
A spokeswoman for Merrill Lynch declined to comment on Monday about O'Neal's possible dismissal.
Swiss bank UBS warned it may have to take further charges from exposure to the U.S. housing and mortgage markets. The company also said its third-quarter loss will match earlier guidance, but further deterioration in the housing market could lead to more write-downs.
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 Health insurer Humana Inc. reported third-quarter profit nearly doubled year-over-year on strong membership growth and one-time gains in its government segment. Revenue rose 12 percent from the year-ago period.
Oracle Corp.'s proposal to acquire BEA Systems Inc. expired on Sunday. Oracle said "BEA shareholders should not assume that Oracle will renew its $17 per share offer in the future." And, rival SAP AG said it is not interest in buying BEA Systems.
Radioshack Corp. swung to a third-quarter profit due to reduced expenses and improved inventory. However, revenue declined 9.4 percent from the year-ago period.
Gap Inc. was poised to move lower after the retailer on Sunday said it will investigate a sweatshop in New Delhi. British newspaper The Observer found children as young as 10 making Gap clothes in the sweatshop.
Stock markets overseas were mostly higher.
In Asian trading, Japan's Nikkei stock average rose 1.17 percent, and Hong Kong's Hang Seng index rose 3.89 percent. In European trading, Britain's FTSE 100 rose 0.51 percent, Germany's DAX index rose 0.61, and France's CAC-40 added 0.58 percent.
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On the Net:
New York Stock Exchange: http://www.nyse.com/
Nasdaq Stock Market: http://www.nasdaq.com/
[The Associated Press;
By JOE BEL BRUNO]
Copyright 2007 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This
material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or
redistributed. |
