Wall Street Futures Fall, Signal Lower Open for Shares

Stock index futures pointed to a weaker open for equities on Wall Street Monday, with futures for the S&P 500, the Dow Jones and the Nasdaq 100 down by between 0.6 and 0.9 percent.

Troubled brokerage MF Global Holdings was nearing a deal to file for bankruptcy protection and sell assets to Interactive Brokers Group, according to reports.

The Institute for Supply Management-New York releases the October index of regional business activity at 8:30 a.m. EDT. In September, the index read 538.0.

At 9:45 a.m. EDT, the Institute of Supply Management Chicago releases October index of manufacturing activity. Economists forecast a reading of 59.0, compared with 60.4 in September.

Amazon has added more titles to Prime Instant Video with a new digital video licensing agreement with Disney-ABC television group, giving Prime members more video content for their new Kindle Fire.

The China unit of investment bank JP Morgan won approval to become a trading member of the Shanghai Gold Exchange, the eighth foreign financial institute to obtain such membership, said the exchange on its website (www.sge.com.cn).

Google Inc is making another push to bring its Web savvy to television sets, hoping to tap into a vast new market despite consumers' lukewarm reaction to one of its initial offerings.

Allstate, the largest publicly traded home and auto insurer in the United States, reports quarterly results. Analysts expect its profit to tumble to 8 cents per share from 83 cents a year ago. Other companies announcing results included Anadarko Petroleum and Humana .

Groupon Inc is considering raising its IPO price range as underwriters grow more confident about demand after completing the East Coast leg of a two-week roadshow to woo investors.

European shares <.FTEU3> fell 0.8 percent early on Monday, giving back a little of last week's strong gains, with miners hurt by falling metals prices after Japan intervened to stem the rise in its currency against the dollar.

Japan sold the yen for the second time in less than three months after it hit another record high against the dollar, saying it intervened to counter speculative moves that were hurting the economy.

The dollar leapt against the yen by the most in three years, hitting a three-month high after the intervention, while metals prices fell.

U.S. stocks closed out a fourth week of gains in quiet fashion on Friday, edging higher as the market took a breather after rallying 3 percent on Europe's deal to stem its debt crisis.

The Dow Jones industrial average <.DJI> gained 22.56 points, or 0.18 percent, to 12,231.11. The Standard & Poor's 500 Index <.SPX><.INX> added 0.49 point, or 0.04 percent, to 1,285.08. The Nasdaq Composite Index <.IXIC> shed 1.48 points, or 0.05 percent, to 2,737.15.

(Reporting by Atul Prakash; Editing by David Holmes)