U.S. Futures Signal Higher Wall Street Open

Stock index futures pointed to a higher open for equities on Wall Street Monday, with futures for the S&P 500, the Dow Jones and the Nasdaq 100 up 0.8 to 0.9 percent.

The Institute for Supply Management releases at 10 a.m. ET its November non-manufacturing index. Economists forecast a reading of 53.5 versus 52.9 in October.

Germany's SAP announced a $3.4 billion cash deal to buy U.S. Web-based software company SuccessFactors, joining the scramble among technology firms to offer cloud-computing services to businesses.

The Commerce Department releases at 10 a.m. October factory orders. Economists expect a drop of 0.3 percent compared with a 0.3 percent rise in September.

The Conference Board releases at 10 a.m. its employment trend index for November. In the previous report, the index read 101.9.

Shares in Samsung Electronics Co Ltd <005930.KS> rose more than 2 percent on Monday after Apple Inc's bid to halt U.S. sales of its Galaxy line of products was rejected, easing concern of slowing growth in its telecom business, which generates revenue of $13 billion per quarter.

General Motors has declared its strategy for turning around its European carmaking unit Opel a failure, Financial Times Deutschland reported on Monday, citing GM Vice Chairman Steve Girsky.

Citigroup Inc is discussing a plan to shuffle Asian managers to reassure Japanese regulators as they prepare to sanction the bank for alleged lapses in disclosure related to the sale of financial products, the Wall Street Journal reported, citing people familiar with the situation.

Payment processing company Visa Inc , which plans to generate half of its revenue from markets outside the United States, signed an agreement with the government of Rwanda to expand its electronic payments services in the African country.

U.S. metals recycler Commercial Metals Co rejected billionaire investor Carl Icahn's buyout bid, saying the offer substantially undervalues the company and is opportunistic.

China's services sector cooled in November to its weakest growth in three months, an HSBC purchasing managers' index showed on Monday, the latest data portraying an economy slowing quickly and in need of policy support.

European stocks <.FTEU3> rose 0.6 percent early on Monday, adding to last week's 8.5 percent jump, on growing hopes of a sweeping solution to the euro zone debt crisis as French President Nicolas Sarkozy and German Chancellor Angela Merkel meet ahead of a key summit.

The Nikkei stock average <.N225> rose 0.6 percent on Monday to build on last week's hefty gains, helped by improved sentiment towards the European debt crisis.

U.S. stocks ended flat on Friday but capped the best week for Wall Street bulls in almost three years after data showed the U.S. unemployment rate dropped to a 2-1/2 year low.

The Dow Jones industrial average <.DJI> dipped 0.61 point, or 0.01 percent, to 12,019.42 on Friday. The S&P 500 <.SPX> shed 0.30 point, or 0.02 percent, to 1,244.28. The Nasdaq Composite <.IXIC> edged up 0.73 points, or 0.03 percent, to 2,626.93.

(Reporting by Atul Prakash. Editing by Jane Merriman)