Stock futures rise as flurry of deal activity boosts confidence

[October 24, 2016]  By Tanya Agrawal

(Reuters) - U.S. stock index futures were higher on Monday as a flurry of deal activity boosted investor confidence.

AT&T <T.N> was down 2.1 percent at $36.72 in premarket trading after the telecommunications company said it would buy Time Warner Inc for $85.4 billion. If approved by regulators, this would be the biggest deal in the world this year. Time Warner Inc was up 0.36 percent at $89.80.

Investors will also be parsing through quarterly earnings reports from companies. Kimberly-Clark and Dow component Visa <V.N> are among the companies that are scheduled to report on Monday.

Third-quarter earnings are expected to decline 1.1 percent from a year earlier, according to Thomson Reuters data. Of the 116 S&P companies that have reported earnings so far, 79 percent have beat analyst expectations, above the long-term average of 64 percent.

The S&P 500 and the Dow closed little changed and the Nasdaq advanced on Friday as a record day for Microsoft and earnings from McDonald's helped offset a fall in energy and healthcare shares.

Genworth Financial <GNW.N> was up 1.7 percent at $5.3 after little-known China Oceanwide Holdings Group pledged $3.8 billion in a deal to take control of the U.S. insurer.

TD Ameritrade <AMTD.O> fell 1 percent to $36.70 after it said it would buy privately held Scottrade Financial Services [SCTRD.UL] in a deal valued at $4 billion.

B/E Aerospace <BEAV.O> jumped 18.5 percent to $50.61 after aircraft component maker Rockwell Collins <COL.N> said it would buy the company in a deal valued at $6.4 billion plus the assumption of $1.9 billion in debt. Rockwell was unchanged at $84.46.

Many Federal Reserve members are scheduled to speak on Monday, including New York Fed President William Dudley, Fed Governor Jerome Powell, St. Louis Fed President James Bullard and Chicago Fed President Charles Evans.

Traders work on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) in New York City, U.S., October 21, 2016. REUTERS/Brendan McDermid

Economic data includes Markit manufacturing PMI index for October at 9:45 a.m. ET.

The dollar index was slightly lower at 98.52 against a basket of major currencies, after touching its highest level since early February last week. A strong dollar could dent the earnings of large multinationals.

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

S&P 500 e-minis were up 9 points, or 0.42 percent, with 108,409 contracts traded.

Nasdaq 100 e-minis  were up 27.75 points, or 0.57 percent, on volume of 19,290 contracts.

Dow e-minis were up 70 points, or 0.39 percent, with 20,882 contracts changing hands.

(Reporting by Tanya Agrawal; Editing by Don Sebastian)

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