Stock index futures point to gains for Wall Street

Stock index futures pointed to a higher open for Wall Street on Monday, with the S&P 500 futures up 1.1 percent, Nasdaq futures 0.8 percent higher, and futures for the Dow Jones industrial average up 1 percent by 4:38 a.m. ET.

U.S. stocks closed little changed on Friday, but Wall Street wrapped up its best month in a year after the earnings season rounded the final turn with a group of strong results that offset the impact of poor economic data.

On the macroeconomic front, investors are likely to focus on U.S. July ISM and June construction spending numbers, both due at 10 a.m. ET.

China's manufacturing sector cooled further in July, even shrinking by one measure, but markets took the news as a sign of a desired slowdown rather than a harbinger of a slump that could derail global recovery.

In the euro zone, manufacturing growth accelerated in July largely thanks to strongly performing German factories, according to a survey on Monday that showed diverging fortunes across the bloc's economies.

China's Geely will complete its $1.8 billion purchase of Ford Motor Co's Volvo unit on Monday, a source with direct knowledge of the matter said, capping China's biggest purchase of a foreign car maker.

BP Plc could start plugging its broken deepsea oil well in the Gulf of Mexico on Monday night, more than three months after its rupture led to the worst offshore oil spill in U.S. history.

Separately, BP has asked Kuwait's sovereign wealth fund to raise its share in the company to 3 percent, the al-Anba newspaper reported on Monday.

The U.S. House of Representatives on Friday approved legislation to strengthen federal offshore drilling regulations in response to the BP's oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico.

More than a million BlackBerry users may have key services in Saudi Arabia and the UAE cut off after authorities stepped up demands on smartphone maker Research In Motion for access to encrypted messages sent over the device.

French financial holding firm Eurazeo said on Saturday it is in exclusive talks to sell its B&B Hotels chain to U.S. private equity firm the Carlyle Group .

Shares of Coca-Cola Co could rise 10 percent or more in the next year after the company pinpointed North America as a growth market, Barron's business weekly reported on Sunday.

The business weekly also said Ford Motor Co shares are poised to rise in the next year, despite weak auto industry sales and uncertainty over the global economy.

In Europe, the FTSEurofirst 300 <.FTEU3> index of top shares were higher in morning trade, with financials leading the way after strong results from heavyweight banks BNP Paribas and HSBC .

(Reporting by Harpreet Bhal; Editing by Jon Loades-Carter)