Stocks were headed for an opening bounce on Monday, with investors scooping up shares beaten down in last week's selloff, while a report that Brocade Communications Systems Inc put itself up for sale may fan deal optimism.

Before the bell, Brocade shares rose 15 percent to $8.80 after the Wall Street Journal reported the data storage equipment maker has put itself on the selling block, citing people familiar with the matter.

The Journal said Oracle Corp and Hewlett-Packard Co were potential bidders for Brocade, but a deal was not imminent, and Brocade might not even go ahead with a sale.

Monday's economic diary is light, with the Institute for Supply Management September reading on the vast services sector due at 10 a.m. EDT. Economists forecast a reading of 50.0 versus 48.4 in August, according to a Reuters survey.

S&P 500 futures rose 2.70 points and were above fair value, a formula that evaluates pricing by taking into account interest rates, dividends and time to expiration on the contract. Dow Jones industrial average futures climbed 23 points and Nasdaq 100 futures jumped 7.25 points.

I suspect we're probably seeing some bargain hunting before the earnings season kicks off, said Peter Cardillo, chief market economist at Avalon Partners in New York. We're probably halfway through this pullback that we've encountered over the last few weeks.

After rallying nearly 60 percent from March through late September, the benchmark S&P 500 index <.SPX> capped a four-day losing streak on Friday. It has fallen more than 4 percent from its peak, weighed by concerns about the strength of the economic recovery.

Last week's top casualties included financials, industrial and technology shares.

In other M&A news, Prudential Financial Inc

said it is exploring a sale of its investment and fund management businesses in South Korea. The deal could fetch about $850 million and trigger a wave of consolidation in the country's brokerage and asset management sectors, where more than 100 companies compete. Prudential shares gained 1.4 percent at $47.40 before the bell.

Major equity markets were little-changed in Europe on Monday.

Bank of America Corp was up 2.4 percent to $16.74 in premarket trading after the Journal reported the bank planned to select an emergency chief executive this week if legal issues force Ken Lewis to leave before year-end. The paper cited a person familiar with the situation.

In other banking news, Goldman Sachs raised its view on the U.S. large-cap bank sector to attractive from neutral. The brokerage raised Wells Fargo & Co to buy, sparking a 4.1 percent jump in that stock to $27.35. The Select Sector SPDR Financial ETF was up 1.3 percent before the bell.

(Reporting by Ellis Mnyandu; editing by Jeffrey Benkoe)

South Korea Investment Bank of america Citigroup