(By Balachander) U.S. stock index futures pointed to a flat open on the Wall Street ahead of a domestic manufacturing report even as investors weighed on the action taken at the EU summit last week.
Mini Dow Industrial Average futures lost 9.00 points to 12,799.00. The Nasdaq Futures edged 0.75 points lower to 2,609.00. Standard and Poor's 500 futures inched up 0.90 points to 1,357.30.
On the US economic front, the Institute for Supply Management's factory index for the month of June is due at 10 am ET, with expectations of a reading of 52 last month, down from 53.5 in May. Another report may show that construction spending increased to 0.2 percent in May after a 0.3 percent rise in April.
On Friday, U.S. stocks closed on a sharply higher note as European leaders' agreement to stimulate the euro zone economy alleviated concerns over the region's debt woes.
Hot Stocks Of The Day: AMLN, DELL, QSFT, MU, LNCR, CELL, IM
In corporate news, Amylin Pharmaceuticals Inc. (NASDAQ: AMLN) jumped 9.15 percent in premarket after Bristol-Myers Squibb (NYSE: BMY) agreed to acquire the biotechnology company for $31.00 a share in cash or roughly $5.3 billion.
Dell Inc. (NASDAQ:DELL) has agreed to acquire Quest Software Inc. (NASDAQ: QSFT) for $28.00 a share in cash, or around $2.4 billion. The deal represents a premium of 0.7 percent to QSFT's previous close of $27.81.
Micron Technology Inc. (NASDAQ:MU) rose 5.07 percent in premarket after the maker of flash memory products said it will acquire bankrupt Japanese chipmaker Elpida Memory Inc. for 200 billion yen ($2.5 billion) to bolster its mobile portfolio.
Brightpoint Inc. (NASDAQ: CELL) rallied 63.77 percent after the distributor of battery products agreed to be bought for $9.00 per share in cash by Ingram Micro Inc. (NYSE: IM). The deal represents a premium of 1.6 percent to CELL's previous closing price. IM shares fell 3.49 percent.
Lincare Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ: LNCR) gained 20.96 percent after Germany's industrial gas producer Linde AG agreed to purchase the provider of home-based respiratory services for roughly $4.6 billion.
Global Markets:
European markets jumped, with Germany's DAX up 1.37 percent to trade at 6,503.88. France's CAC40 jumped 1.63 percent to trade at 3,248.87. U.K.'s FTSE 100 added 0.76 percent to trade at 5,613.69.
Among Asian markets, China's Shanghai Stock Exchange Composite Index inched up 0.03 percent to close at 2,226.11. Japan's Nikkei 225 edged 0.04 percent lower to end at 9,003.48. India's BSE Sensex finished at 17,398.98, down 0.18 percent. Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index was closed for a holiday.
Market Scan:
Ahead of the opening bell, crude oil futures declined 1.57 percent to $83.630 per barrel. Gold futures fell 0.90 percent to $1,589.7 per ounce.
In the currency market, the euro traded 0.61 percent lower against the U.S. dollar at 1.2589, and the British pound lost 0.32 percent against the greenback to 1.5657. The dollar retreated 0.04 percent against the Japanese yen at 79.7600.