Stock futures up slightly as factory data awaited

[November 02, 2015]  By Abhiram Nandakumar

(Reuters) - U.S. stock index futures were marginally higher on Monday as investors digested reports on factory activity from China and Germany, ahead of U.S. manufacturing data and earnings reports.

* Asian stocks declined after China's official factory data on Sunday showed activity unexpectedly shrank for a third straight month in October, though the contraction was modest. A private survey showed on Monday that the pace of decline in factory activity has slowed.

* European shares pared early losses after better-than-expected data on manufacturing activity in Germany.

* U.S. stocks closed lower on Friday after a mixed bag of quarterly results, but ended October with their strongest monthly performance in four years.

* Data on U.S. manufacturing activity is expected to show factory activity fell to 50.0 in October from 50.2 in September. The data is due at 10:00 a.m. ET.
 

* Investors will parse the economic data and the earnings reports for a clearer picture of the state of the economy leading up to the Federal Reserve's meeting in December.

* The Fed said at its October meeting that it could still raise interest rates in December if the economy proves resilient enough to sustain higher rates.

* Fed Chair Janet Yellen is scheduled to attend a meeting of the Financial Stability Oversight Council in Washington along with Treasury Secretary Jack Lew.

* Shares of Dyax soared 34.4 percent to $37 premarket after British drugmaker Shire said it would buy the company for about $5.9 billion. Baxalta, also a takeover target for Shire, fell 4.2 percent to $33.

* Chipotle Mexican Grill dropped nearly 6 percent to $602 after the restaurant chain operator said on Sunday it had closed all its restaurants in Seattle and Portland due to a reported outbreak of E.coli bacteria.

* Visa was down about 1.5 percent at $76.45 after offering to buy Visa Europe for as much as $23.34 billion. Visa also reported lower-than-expected quarterly profit.

* Fitbit and AIG are scheduled to report results after the close.

Futures snapshot at 7:03 a.m. ET:

* S&P 500 e-minis were up 0.5 points, or 0.02 percent, with 146,789 contracts traded.

* Nasdaq 100 e-minis were up 3.5 points, or 0.08 percent, on volume of 23,075 contracts.

* Dow e-minis  were up 6 points, or 0.03 percent, with 18,246 contracts changing hands.

(Reporting by Abhiram Nandakumar in Bengaluru; Editing by Savio D'Souza)

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