(By Salman - iStockAnalyst Writer)US stock futures edged lower on Monday as a stronger dollar pressurized crude oil and other commodities.
At 8:16 am ET, Standard & Poor's 500 Index futures decreased 11 points to 929.70. Dow Jones Industrial Average futures shed 99 points to 8639. Nasdaq Composite Index futures slumped 16 points to 1469.50.
Life insurer
Lincoln Financial Group (
NYSE: LNC) said on Monday that it would accept federal bailout money as part of a plan to raise $2 billion that also includes sales of stock and debt. The company also announced that it will sell its Lincoln U.K. subsidiary to Sun Life Financial.
In a regulatory filing, online retailer
Amazon.com (
NASDAQ: AMZN) said it agreed to make a one-time payment of $51 million to to Toy R Us to settle a five-year old lawsuit. Toys R Us had accused Amazon of breaking a deal by selling over its Website certain toys to which Toys R Us claimed to have exclusive rights. The payment will be charged against the company's second-quarter results.
Limited Brands Inc. (
NYSE: LTD) said Monday that it is seeking to raise approximately $500 million through an institutional private placement of senior notes due 2019.
Dean Foods Co. (
NYSE: DF) announced on Monday that it will buy the Alpro division of Vandemoortele NV, Belgium's largest privately held food company, for 325 million euros ($455 million), in order to expand its presence in the global soy foods market.
In a statement issued on Friday, Finance ministers from the Group of Eight leading industrialized countries said that in the light of early signs of a recovery in stock markets, rising consumer and business confidence and improvement in financial markets, the group "discussed the need to prepare appropriate strategies for unwinding the extraordinary policy measures taken to respond to the crisis once the recovery is assured,"
Meanwhile, International Monetary Fund Managing Director Dominique Strauss-Kahn said that world leaders need to be cautious in attempting to roll back economic stimulus measures because the worst of the global recession isn't over, Reuters reported on Monday.
Dollar climbed against the world's major currencies, including Euro, after Russian Finance Minister Alexei Kudrin on Saturday said that there was no near-term alternative to the U.S. dollar as the world's leading reserve currency.
European stocks declined in afternoon trade. At 12:56 pm London time, the UK FTSE decreased 71.30 points or 1.61% to 4,370.65. The German DAX and French CAC dropped 2.06% and 1.66% respectively.
Asian stocks finished lower. The Nikkei 225 fell 96.15 points or 0.95% to 10,039.67. The Hang Seng index of Hong Kong retreated 390.72 points or 2.07% to 18,498.96.
NYMEX Crude oil for July delivery declined as much as $1.33 or 1.9% to $70.71 a barrel in electronic trading.
Disclosure: Author does not own any of the stocks discussed here.
