Stock index futures rose on Monday, with investors poised to scoop up shares beaten down in last week's sell-off, while a report that Brocade Communications Systems Inc put itself up for sale may fan deal optimism.

After rallying nearly 60 percent from March through late September, the benchmark S&P 500 index <.SPX> capped a four-day losing streak on Friday. It has fallen more than 4 percent from its post-March peak, weighed by concerns about the strength of the economic recovery.

Last week's top casualties included financials, industrial and technology shares.

Before the bell, shares of Brocade jumped 8.5 percent to $8.30 after the Wall Street Journal reported the data storage equipment maker has put itself on the selling block, citing people familiar with the matter.

The newspaper said Oracle Corp and Hewlett-Packard Co were potential bidders for the company, but a deal was not imminent and Brocade might not even go ahead with a sale.

In other M&A news, Prudential Financial Inc

said it is exploring a sale of its investment and fund management businesses in South Korea. The deal could fetch about $850 million and trigger a wave of consolidation in the country's brokerage and asset management sectors, where more than 100 companies compete.

S&P 500 futures rose 5.70 points and were above fair value, a formula that evaluates pricing by taking into account interest rates, dividends and time to expiration on the contract. Dow Jones industrial average futures climbed 40 points and Nasdaq 100 futures jumped 10.25 points.

There may be some market caution, however, after Nouriel Roubini, a leading economist who predicted the scale of global financial troubles, said a longer, U-shaped recovery was possible, with leading economies underperforming perhaps for three years. He said there was also an increasing risk of a double-dip scenario.

Major equity markets were little-changed in Europe on Monday.

Bank of America Corp was up 2 percent to $16.67 and among the stocks to watch after the Journal reported that the bank planned to select an emergency chief executive this week if legal issues force Ken Lewis to leave before year-end. The paper cited a person familiar with the situation.

(Reporting by Ellis Mnyandu; editing by Jeffrey Benkoe)

South Korea