Futures flat as M&As offset Clinton email review jitters

[October 31, 2016]  By Tanya Agrawal

(Reuters) - U.S. stock index futures were little changed on Monday as a string of M&A deals helped offset jitters following news the FBI will review more emails related to Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton's private email use.

General Electric was up 0.34 percent at $29.32 in premarket trading after it said it would merge its oil and gas business with oilfield services provider Baker Hughes. Baker Hughes was up 10.7 percent at $65.45.

Level 3 Communications rose 3.9 percent to $56.15 after CenturyLink  said it would buy the company in a deal valued at about $34 billion.

U.S. stocks fell in a volatile session on Friday after the Clinton news hit, just days ahead of the election. While Clinton had opened a recent lead over her unpredictable Republican rival Donald Trump in national polls, it had been narrowing even before the email controversy resurfaced.

The market is also keeping an eye on the outcome of the U.S. Federal Reserve meeting, which begins on Tuesday. The Fed is unlikely to make a move this week, as it is too close to the election with many market participants instead expecting a hike in December.

Data expected on Monday includes a report on consumer spending at 8:30 a.m. ET (1230 GMT). Personal income likely rose 0.4 percent in September, from 0.2 percent in August.

Investors are also assessing the latest earnings reports with the hope the quarter snaps a year-long earnings recession.

As of Friday, nearly 73 percent of the S&P 500 companies that reported have topped Wall Street expectations, with growth for the quarter now expected to be 3 percent, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S. The quarter had been expected to show a decline of 0.5 percent at the start of October.

Other deals announced on Monday include HollyFrontier buying Suncor Energy's Petro-Canada lubricants unit and Dominion Midstream Partners buying Questar Pipeline.

Traders work on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) in New York City, U.S., September 15, 2016. REUTERS/Brendan McDermid

Oil prices were lower after non-OPEC producers made no specific commitment to join the OPEC in limiting oil output levels to prop up prices, suggesting they wanted the oil producing group to solve its differences first. [O/R]

Futures snapshot at 7:10 a.m. ET:

S&P 500 e-minis were up 1 points, or 0.05 percent, with 115,692 contracts traded.

Nasdaq 100 e-minis were up 10.75 points, or 0.22 percent, on volume of 28,617 contracts.

Dow e-minis were down 1 points, or 0.01 percent, with 24,005 contracts changing hands.

(Reporting by Tanya Agrawal; Editing by Sriraj Kalluvila)

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