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The world's largest drugmaker's shares rose 1.4 percent in early trading on Monday as the broader market edged lower, after the company announced late on Sunday that Jeffrey Kindler had retired as CEO and was replaced by Pfizer veteran Ian Read, the company's global head of pharmaceuticals.

Kindler said in a statement issued by Pfizer that the job had been "extremely demanding" and that he wanted to "recharge my batteries."

But Kindler, 55, may also have been under pressure because of the stock's sluggish performance.

Since July 2006, when Kindler assumed the CEO post, Pfizer's shares have fallen roughly 27 percent compared with a 10 percent decline for the NYSE Arca Pharmaceutical index of large U.S. and European drugmakers.

"When a company's shares underperform, shareholders express their frustrations to the board, and the board expresses its frustrations by making management changes," said Les Funtleyder, portfolio manager of the Miller Tabak Healthcare Transformation Fund, which does not hold Pfizer.

Goldman Sachs analyst Jami Rubin applauded the change, saying she has "long argued that Pfizer should be more aggressive in achieving greater efficiencies in both its $28.5 billion operating expenses base as well as its massive balance sheet and portfolio of various businesses, some of which should be divested."

"We are delighted to see the board taking action as Pfizer's share price continues to underperform amid a flurry of questions about strategic direction," Rubin said in research note.

Rubin also said Pfizer should remove its 2012 forecast, which she said was set "unrealistically high" and has been a source of anxiety.

Pfizer's 2012 forecast includes the first full year of impact from losing exclusive U.S. rights to Lipitor, its mammoth-selling cholesterol drug, and has implied somewhat stable results despite the Lipitor loss.

Kindler's departure comes more than a year after the drugmaker completed the signature move of his tenure -- the $67 billion acquisition of rival Wyeth.

The acquisition of Wyeth, which brought Pfizer more access to biotech drugs and vaccines as well as cost-cutting opportunities, was intended to help Pfizer maneuver through the decline of Lipitor, due to lose U.S. patent protection in November 2011.

But the move has so far failed to jump-start the stock. Pfizer shares have fallen 5.2 percent since the company bought Wyeth on October 15, 2009. By contrast, shares of Merck & Co have jumped 15 percent since it clinched its own mega-merger, of Schering-Plough Corp, on November 3, 2009.

JP Morgan analyst Chris Schott said the CEO change could lead to more aggressive actions by Pfizer, including share repurchases or dividend increases, as well as more business development or divestitures.

"While a CEO transition in the midst of a major merger integration will likely create added uncertainty with the story, the key question, in our view, remains on the changes this transition will bring to the Pfizer story," Schott said in a research note.

Meanwhile, euro zone finance ministers met amid pressure to increase the size of a 750 billion euro ($1,006 billion) safety net for debt-stricken members in hopes of halting potential contagion to other countries.

On Sunday, Bernanke told the CBS television program "60 Minutes" that the Fed could end up increasing its commitment to buy $600 billion in U.S. government bonds if the economy fails to respond or unemployment stays too high.

Bernanke also said it would take four to five years for the country's unemployment rate to come down to what he called more "normal" levels of about 5 percent to 6 percent.

Quantitative easing has been a double-edged sword for equities as it has helped inflate asset prices but also signaled the recovery is still fragile.

The euro fell ahead of the European meeting, pressuring equities. Stocks and the euro have moved in tandem of late with the euro looked at as a proxy for debt concerns.

S&P 500 futures dropped 3 points and were below 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 lost 11 points, and Nasdaq 100 futures slipped 7 points.

Stocks closed their best week in a month on Friday, despite data showing tepid jobs growth. The S&P 500 rose 3 percent last week.

The S&P 500 faces strong technical resistance at about 1,228, near a recent high of more than two years and also the 61.8 percent Fibonacci retracement of the index's slide from October 2007 to March 2009, a key technical indicator.

Support for the benchmark kicks in at 1,200, which was recently a stubborn resistance point, and the top end of its recent trading range. The S&P closed at 1,224.71 on Friday.

Pfizer Inc's (PFE.N) chief executive stepped down unexpected, acknowledging the personal toll involved in steering the world's largest drugmaker through a multibillion dollar merger, the company said late Sunday.

Bank of America Corp (BAC.N) has told U.S. regulators it has met the final condition in repaying the government's $45 billion bailout funding, the Financial Times reported.

(Reporting by Leah Schnurr; editing by Jeffrey Benkoe)

The Fed will regularly review the policy and could adjust the amount of buying up or down depending on the economy's path, he added.

In a rare televised interview, Bernanke told the CBS program "60 Minutes" the Fed's actions are aimed at supporting what is still a fragile economic recovery, dismissing critics who argue the policy will lead to future inflation.

"This fear of inflation I think is way overstated," Bernanke said in the interview aired on Sunday.

"What we're doing is lowering interest rates by buying Treasury securities," he said. "And by lowering interest rates, we hope to stimulate the economy to grow faster. The trick is to find the appropriate moment when to begin to unwind this policy. And that's what we're going to do."

Bernanke said it would take four to five years for the country's unemployment rate, which rose to 9.8 percent in November, to come down to what he called more "normal" levels of around 5 percent to 6 percent.

Asked if the central bank could go beyond the $600 billion of bond buys announced at its November meeting, Bernanke said: "Oh, it's certainly possible. It depends on the efficacy of the program. It depends, on inflation. And finally it depends on how the economy looks," he said.

But he also did not rule out stopping short of the total.

"We're gonna be regularly reviewing this," Bernanke said. "This is not something that we've set into automatic motion going forward. We want to continue to think about it. Whether it needs to be changed. Whether it needs to be increased or decreased or modified."

The U.S. economy grew at a modest 2.5 percent annual rate in the third quarter, and more vigorous growth is needed to bring down unemployment.

The "60 Minutes" interview is as part of a broader effort to raise the Fed chairman's public profile in order to counter critics of Fed policy -- both in Washington and within the central bank itself.

NOT PRINTING MONEY

The decision to offer further monetary stimulus at a time overnight borrowing costs are already effectively at zero and the banking system is awash with $2.3 trillion in Fed-created credit has proven controversial both at home and abroad.

Many economists, some Republican lawmakers, and a small but vocal minority of top officials within the Fed worry that the central bank's actions are unlikely to do much to spur economic growth with borrowing costs already unusually low.

Instead, they worry the massive bond purchases will lead to distortions in financial markets, potentially sparking asset bubbles in unexpected places. Some also fear, as Charles Plosser of the Philadelphia Fed has argued, the expansion of reserves could create the "kindling" that will spark inflation in the future.

Rio's move on Australia's Riversdale is likely to spark a bidding war, as the company has hard coking-coal projects in Mozambique that could eventually supply 5-10 percent of the global market for the key steel-making material.

Brazil's Vale is seen by some analysts as the most likely rival bidder, as it already has coal mines nearby in Mozambique. India's Tata Steel, Riversdale's top shareholder, was also seen as a potential bidder.

Xstrata Plc, Anglo American and Peabody Energy could also be interested. Top coking-coal exporter BHP Billiton is seen as a less likely contender, as it has its own growth options in Australia.

Xstrata and Anglo declined to comment.

The company's fourth-biggest shareholder, Australian investment firm LinQ Management, expects Riversdale to be hotly contested, given the scarcity of good quality coking-coal assets and booming demand from China and India for the commodity.

"It's in a good part of the world for accessibility, and we think there's plenty of further upside for whoever's interested in buying it. Hopefully there will be other interested suitors coming to the table," LinQ Managing Director Clive Donner said.

Riversdale confirmed media reports that Rio was talking about an offer around A$15 a share for Riversdale, which would value the group at A$3.5 billion ($3.48 billion), only a 6 percent premium on Riversdale's close on December 3 ahead of a leak to a UK newspaper. Riversdale also hinted that it was talking to others.

"While discussions with Rio Tinto are ongoing, there is no certainty that Rio Tinto or any other party will proceed with any proposal for the acquisition of Riversdale," Riversdale said.

Rio Tinto confirmed it was in talks, but also said that it had told Riversdale it was not currently in a position to submit a formal bid for the company.

"Hence nothing is on the table," a Rio spokesman told Reuters in an email. "Discussions are incomplete."

Riverdale's shares hit a high of A$16.41 on Monday, its biggest one-day gain in more than two years. They ended up 15.7 percent at A$16.31.

UBS is advising Riversdale and Macquarie is advising Rio Tinto.

SEEKING MID-SIZED TAKEOVERS

A deal would mark Rio Tinto's first significant acquisition since its badly timed $38 billion takeover of Alcan at the height of the commodities boom in 2007, which forced it to sell more than $13 billion worth of assets to help slash debt.