2:20 AM
Wall Street set to edge higher
Addison Ray
LONDON | Mon Aug 23, 2010 5:06am EDT
LONDON Reuters - Wall Street was set to edge up on Monday, with merger and acquisition activity boosting sentiment after major indexes fell for two weeks in a row.
At 0846 GMT 4:46 a.m. EDT, futures for the Dow Jones, S&P 500 and Nasdaq were up between 0.2 and 0.3 percent.
The FTSEurofirst 300 index of leading European shares was up 0.4 percent at 1,033.86 points, with miners gaining on hopes that Australias election result means plans for higher taxes will be scrapped.
Campbell Soup Co, the worlds largest soup maker, is considering making a 1.5 billion pound $2.3 billion break-up bid for Britains United Biscuits, the Sunday Times reported.
Recent M&A activity includes Intel Corps move to acquire software maker McAfee Inc for $7.7 billion.
There are no major U.S. companies due to report. Results due later in the week include those from bookseller Barnes & Noble, expected to report a quarterly loss on Tuesday.
Economic data due this week include existing housing sales on Tuesday, set to show a 12 percent decline.
U.S. stocks slipped on Friday and the S&P 500 and Dow fell for a second straight week on persistent concerns the recovery has tapered off. For the week, the S&P 500 was down 0.7 percent and the Dow slipped 0.9 percent, while the Nasdaq gained 0.3 percent. It was the second week of declines for the S&P and the Dow.
Even so, major indexes came off Fridays lows as some investors homed in on positive outlooks in the tech sector and used recent M&A news as an excuse for late-day buying.
Reporting by Brian Gorman; Editing by Michael Shields
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