(By Balachander) U.S. stock-index futures pointed to a higher opening on the Wall Street ahead of a Eurozone finance ministers meet to discuss a bailout package for Cyprus.
Mini Dow Industrial Average futures rose 20 points to 13,946. The Nasdaq futures added 2.75 points to 2,774.75. Standard and Poor's 500 futures gained 1.40 points to 1,513.90.
There are no major U.S. economic data scheduled for the day.
Other reports of interest due to be released over the week include: the Commerce Department's retail sales data, the New York Federal Reserve's manufacturing survey, the weekly jobless claims, consumer sentiment survey and the Federal Reserve's industrial production report.
On Friday, U.S. stocks ended on a positive note after a report showed that the U.S. trade deficit narrowed sharply for the month of December to $38.5 billion from a revised $48.6 billion in November.
Hot Stocks Of The Day: GOOG, CELG, NKE, NVO, AOL, RDN
Google Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOG) may be in focus after a regulatory filing disclosed chairman Eric Schmidt adopted a plan to sell roughly 42 percent of his stake in the California-based search engine giant, or around 3.2 million shares worth about $2.5 billion.
Celgene Corp. (NASDAQ: CELG) rose 1.67 percent in premarket. The Summit, New Jersey-based biopharmaceutical company said the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has approved an oral therapy to treat patients with multiple myeloma whose disease progressed after being treated with other cancer drugs.
Nike Inc. (NYSE: NKE) added 2.00 percent in premarket. JPMorgan Chase upgraded the stock to "overweight" from "neutral".
Novo Nordisk (NYSE: NVO) said the U.S. health regulators would not approve the Denmark-based drug maker's new drug applications (NDA) for insulin Tresiba and Ryzodeg. American depositary receipts (ADRs) of NVO plunged 12.26 percent in premarket.
AOL Inc. (NYSE: AOL) gained 2.91 percent in premarket. RBC Capital Markets LLC upgraded its rating on the shares of the Web services company to "outperform" from "sector perform".
Radian Group Inc. (NYSE: RDN) slumped 7.74 percent in premarket after the credit enhancement company posted a wider quarterly loss due to minimal gains on investments and change in fair value of derivatives. Revenue dropped 38 percent.
Global Markets
European markets traded higher before the 17-member euro area meet in Brussels , with Germany's DAX inching up 0.08 percent to trade at 7,657.98. France's CAC40 added 0.66 percent to trade at 3,673.46. The U.K.'s FTSE 100 rose 0.43 percent to trade at 6,291.21.
The Chinese, Hong Kong and the Japanese market was shut for holidays. India's BSE Sensex closed 0.12 percent lower at 19,460.57.
Commodity & Currency Scan
Ahead of the opening bell, crude oil futures traded 0.25 percent lower at $95.54 per barrel. Gold futures dropped 0.56 percent to $1,657.70 per ounce.
In the currency market, the euro rose 0.19 percent against the U.S. dollar to 1.3390, while the British pound fell 0.69 percent to 1.5692. The dollar advanced 0.80 percent against the Japanese yen at 93.4200.