Stock futures rise with commodities, euro eyed
U.S. stock index futures rose on Monday as commodities and the euro bounced back from last week's hefty losses.
Brent and U.S. crude futures rose 3 percent with NYMEX crude about $100 a barrel, helped by bargain-hunting after last week's sharp drop. Copper and gold gained more than 1 percent each.
Shares of mining company Freeport-McMoRan Copper & Gold Inc
Today's market bounce is due mostly to a rebound in commodities, said Peter Cardillo, chief market economist at Avalon Partners in New York. We have a weaker dollar and that is attracting some risk to the market.
The iShares Silver Trust exchange-traded fund
The U.S. dollar index <.DXY>, a gauge of the greenback against major currencies, fell 0.25 percent after having gained 2.6 percent last week, the largest such gain since mid-August.
Among companies reporting earnings Monday are Sempra Energy
S&P 500 futures rose 5.1 points and were above fair value, a formula that evaluates pricing by taking into account interest rates, dividends and time to expiration of the contract. Dow Jones industrial average futures gained 49 points and Nasdaq 100 futures added 14.50 points.
Relatively low volume so far this year could see a further decline as Citigroup Inc's
Citi shares traded at $44.71 after closing at $4.52 on Friday.
European stocks were down in morning trade as the return of fears over the region's debt crisis sparked a selloff. Madrid's IBEX <.IBEX> was down 1.5 percent. <.EU>
Investors were rattled by rumors that debt-stricken Greece could leave the euro zone, but Greek Prime Minister George Papandreou denied the rumors on Saturday.
The euro bounced back against the dollar as some sovereign investors viewed its selloff late last week on concerns about Greek debt as overdone, given still favorable interest rate differentials. Technical indicators suggest gains could be temporary.
The biggest threat (to the U.S. equities market) going forward would be if the euro were to come under severe pressure, said Avalon Partners' Cardillo.
Last week, the Dow Jones industrial average <.DJI> lost 1.3 percent, the Standard & Poor's 500 <.SPX> fell 1.7 percent and the Nasdaq Composite <.IXIC> dropped 1.6 percent.
Despite last week's losses the S&P 500 held above important technical levels with the week's low just below 1,330 and Friday's close above 1,340.
(This story was corrected in 7th paragraph to remove Walt Disney from earnings expected Monday)
(Reporting by Rodrigo Campos; Editing by Kenneth Barry)
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