Wall Street to rise as energy shares track oil rebound

[December 15, 2014]  By Rodrigo Campos
 
 NEW YORK (Reuters) - U.S. stocks were set to rise at the open on Monday, following the worst week for the S&P 500 in more than two years, with investors focused on crude oil prices which earlier hit a fresh 5-1/2-year low.

Stocks in the energy sector are likely to rise as Brent <LCOc1> and U.S. crude <CLc1> rebounded, but futures gave up some of their gains as crude prices also trimmed their advance. The Select Sector Energy SPDR exchange-traded fund <XLE.P> gained 0.7 percent in premarket trading.

The New York Federal Reserve's gauge of area manufacturing turned negative for the first time in almost two years. The Fed's gauge of industrial output and capacity utilization is due at 9:15 a.m. (1415 GMT).

Shares of pet supply retailer PetSmart <PETM.O> rose 4.8 percent in premarket trading after it agreed to be bought by a private equity consortium led by BC Partners Ltd for $8.7 billion, in the largest leveraged buyout of the year.

Workers at Amazon <AMZN.O> warehouses in Germany began a three-day strike for better pay and work conditions as the online retailer raced to ensure holiday orders are delivered on time. In early New York trading, Amazon shares were bid slightly higher than the stock's close on Friday.

Nasdaq <NDAQ.O> said Friday it would add American Airlines Group <AAL.O>, Electronic Arts <EA.O> and Lam Research <LRCX.O> to the Nasdaq 100 <.NDX>, and remove Expedia <EXPE.O>, F5 Networks <FFIV.O> and Maxim Integrated Products <MXIM.O> from the index. Changes are scheduled to take effect Dec. 22 before the market opens.

Traders will keep an eye on Sydney, Australia, where police locked down the center of the city after an armed man walked into a busy cafe, took hostages and forced them to display an Islamic flag, igniting fears of a jihadist attack.

(Editing by Bernadette Baum)

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