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Citigroup Inc's first-quarter profit beat Wall Street estimates as expenses fell 7 percent from the 2011 fourth quarter.

Citigroup Inc reported lower first-quarter profit on Monday as the bank worked to contain expenses in the face of volatile capital markets.

The companies whose shares are moving in pre-market trade on Monday are: First Solar, Alpha Natural Resources, CF Industries Holdings, Advanced Micro Devices, Halliburton, Citigroup, Mattel, Hasbro, Infosys and SCANA Corp.

Stock index futures advanced on Monday ahead of retail sales data, indicating the S&P 500 may climb after suffering its worst weekly decline of the year.

Futures on major US stock indices point to a higher opening on Monday ahead of economic data including retail sales.

Temasek Holdings, the Singapore state-owned investment group, has agreed to buy $2.3 billion worth of shares in the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (ICBC) from Goldman Sachs, a move that is seen as part of its strategy to increase investment in emerging economies.

After suffering their worst two weeks of the year, stocks will look to quarterly earnings to determine whether the recent pullback has been exhausted or more losses are justified.

Earnings season will kick into full gear next week with results due from major players. The stock market had an incredible first quarter with double-digit percentage gains, and the flood of company earnings reports will largely decide which way the market will be going from here.

Analysts expect quarterly revenue of $19.85 billion, which would be a bump up from the $19.73 billion Citi posted a year ago. Net income is expected to be 99 cents a share, compared with $1 a share in the first quarter of 2011.

Wells Fargo & Co. (NYSE: WFC) is expected to report a big jump in quarterly earnings and a small rise in revenue on increasing mortgage refinancing during the first three months of the year.

Asian stock markets gained Thursday, following a rebound on Wall Street overnight on easing eurozone worries and hopes for a better-than-expected US earnings season after solid start from Alcoa.

Two proxy advisory firms are backing a shareholder proposal to split the roles of chairman and chief executive at Wells Fargo & Co , putting pressure on another U.S. bank to revamp its leadership structure.

That Wall Street expects J.P. Morgan to outperform its peers shouldn't come as a surprise. Besides being the biggest, it's arguably among the three or four most stable big banks.

A federal judge approved a $25 billion mortgage settlement with five top U.S. banks over allegations of foreclosure abuses and misconduct in servicing home loans, according to court documents.

In a new twist to the class claims lawsuit against India-based conglomerate Larsen & Toubro and its U.S. subsidiary L&T Infotech, an amended complaint has been filed to include yet another former female employee of the company who has alleged gender and pregnancy discrimination, and has also outlined in detail massive immigration violations that the company was indulging in.

IBM (NYSE: IBM) and the Netherlands Institute for Radio Astronomy announced a five-year deal for computer support for the world’s most sensitive telescope.

Research In Motion Ltd. (Nasdaq: RIMM), the BlackBerry developer, reported a net loss of $125 million, or 24 cents a share, for the fourth quarter, as revenue plunged 25 percent to only $4.19 billion.

Basho, a four-year-old startup, is challenging giants like Oracle (Nasdaq: ORCL) and EMC (NYSE: EMC) in the database market as well as new products for the Cloud, or Internet-based computing.

China has allocated $24 billion in long-term foreign debt quotas to foreign banks for 2012 to allow the lenders to bring more money into the Chinese economy, the National Development and Reform Commission said on Thursday.

Bank of America Corp Chief Executive Officer Brian Moynihan made $8.1 million in total compensation last year, more than four times the $1.9 million he received in 2010, according to a filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission on Wednesday.

Within three years, the combined GDP of Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa is forecast to exceed that of the United States. China is expected to become the world's No. 1 economy by 2027.