U.S. stock index futures pointed to a lower open on Wall Street on Monday, as investors fretted about the outlook for company profit despite global conglomerate Philips's

upbeat earnings and comments.

At 0849 GMT, futures for the S&P 500 were down 0.42 percent, Dow Jones futures were down 0.37 percent and Nasdaq 100 futures were down 0.32 percent.

Investors were bracing for a flurry of quarterly results this week from U.S. bellwethers such as Goldman , Intel Corp. , Johnson & Johnson , Google , IBM , JPMorgan Chase , Bank of America , Citigroup and General Electric .

Oil prices fell more than $1 to below $59 a barrel on Monday, slipping to a seven-week low on concerns about the state of the global economy as equities markets tumbled.

CIT Group Inc , a commercial U.S. lender struggling to finance its business, said late on Sunday that it remains in active discussions with regulators on measures to improve its near-term liquidity position. It said it is also actively discussing liquidity solutions that do not involve access to the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp's (FDIC) Temporary Liquidity Guarantee Program.

Japan's Nikkei average <.N225> slid 2.6 percent to its lowest close in eight weeks on Monday, hurt by growing political uncertainty after news that embattled Prime Minister Taro Aso is set to call a general election for August 30. <.T>

European stocks were down 0.8 percent in early trade on Monday, hitting an 11-week low, as mounting concerns about company earnings prompted investors to scale back their trading positions. <.EU>

Philips Electronics

said it was hopeful of an upturn in business in the second half of 2009, helped by cost cuts, as it surprised the market with a return to profit in the second quarter. Philips' stock was up 4.4 percent.

The Dow industrials and the S&P 500 fell on Friday, dropping for the fourth straight week, after Chevron Corp warned about its quarterly results and consumer confidence fell to it lowest level since March.

The Dow Jones industrial average <.DJI> dropped 36.65 points, or 0.45 percent, to 8,146.52. The Standard & Poor's 500 Index <.SPX> fell 3.55 points, or 0.40 percent, to 879.13. But the Nasdaq Composite Index <.IXIC> gained 3.48 points, or 0.20 percent, to 1,756.03. For the week, the Dow slipped 1.6 percent, the S&P 500 fell 1.9 percent and the Nasdaq lost 2.3 percent.

(Reporting by Blaise Robinson; Editing by Mike Nesbit)

Japan