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Chrysler also gave further details on its refinancing of $7.5 billion of loans owed to the United States and Canada stemming from its 2009 bailout.

Its first-quarter net income came to $116 million, compared with a net loss of $197 million a year earlier.

Revenue shot up 35 percent to $13.1 billion, spurred by the company's 16 new and revamped models, including the Jeep Grand Cherokee and the Chrysler 300. The company also started selling the Fiat 500 small car during the quarter.

The company reported an operating profit of $477 million in the first quarter, compared with $143 million a year earlier.

Chrysler also reiterated its full-year outlook, saying it aimed to post revenues of $55 billion and net income between $200 million and $500 million.

Sergio Marchionne, the chief executive of Chrysler and Fiat, has said the company would need to post "a couple" quarters of net income before an initial public offering, which could come this year or next.

Until now, Chrysler has posted a string of operating profits, but high interest rates on loans the company owes to the United States and Canada undercut its ability to post net income.

The company also said Monday that it would borrow $3.5 billion in a senior secured six-year term loan and $2.5 billion in secured bonds that will have eight- and 10-year maturities.

Chrysler plans to use the term loan, bonds and $1.27 billion in cash from Fiat to refinance its government loans during the second quarter.

The company also confirmed plans to secure a $1.5 billion five-year revolving credit facility, as sources previously told Reuters.

In the past two years, the company overhauled its vehicle lineup and recently spurred renewed buzz for its flagship brand with a Super Bowl ad, bearing the tagline "Imported from Detroit."

A refinancing deal would bolster Chrysler's balance sheet, making it more attractive in an IPO. The deal also paves the way for Fiat to take majority control of the U.S. automaker.

Fiat currently has a 30 percent stake. Marchionne has said Fiat plans to exercise an option to buy a 16 percent stake in Chrysler for $1.27 billion during the second quarter, which will be used to refinance Chrysler's government debt.

Fiat expects to push its stake in Chrysler to 51 percent later this year, when Chrysler is expected to meet its last performance test set by the U.S. Treasury in 2009.

(Reporting by Deepa Seetharaman; Editing by Derek Caney, Dave Zimmerman)

By 0749 GMT, futures for the S&P 500, Dow Jones futures and Nasdaq futures were up 0.7 to 0.8 percent.

U.S. Treasury yields and the dollar rose, while safe-haven gold slipped from record highs, reflecting a perception of easing geopolitical risks after U.S. President Barack Obama said late on Sunday that bin Laden had been killed in a shootout in a compound in Abbotabad north of Islamabad.

Economic data scheduled for release is seen providing further direction for equities, with the Institute of Management Supply (ISM)'s manufacturing PMI numbers for April, due out at 1400 GMT, expected to drop to 59.9 from 61.2 a month earlier.

Stocks on Wall Street rose on Friday, with the Dow .DJI and the Nasdaq .IXIC recording their best monthly performance since December on the back of upbeat corporate results.

In company news, final buyout bids for Warner Music Group (WMG.N) are due on Monday and the company could be sold by the end of the week in a deal valued at over $3 billion, according to a person familiar with the matter.

Warren Buffett still believes his reputation is intact after his former top lieutenant David Sokol pitched for a takeover of Lubrizol Corp (LZ.N) after Sokol had purchased shares in the chemicals company.

Danish food ingredients and enzymes maker Danisco's (DCO.CO) board of directors unanimously recommended that Danisco shareholders accept U.S. chemicals group DuPont's (DD.N) improved offer for Danisco.

French retail and luxury giant PPR (PRTP.PA) said it would buy California-based Volcom Inc (VLCM.O), which specializes in youth-oriented sports clothes, for $607.5 million in cash.

U.S. agribusiness and trading conglomerate Cargill CARG.UL won EU regulatory approval on Monday to purchase a German chocolate maker to expand its cocoa and chocolate business in Europe.

In Europe, the pan-European FTSEurofirst 300 .FTEU3 index rose in early trade, though volumes were expected to be thin throughout the session as Britain's markets were closed for a holiday.

(Reporting by Harpreet Bhal; Editing by Lincoln Feast)

"Everything I do is out there for the people to judge," Buffett said during his company's annual shareholder meeting on Sunday.

"I don't hold myself to a standard of perfection or I'd have committed suicide a long time ago."

He said that with 260,000 people working for his company, Berkshire Hathaway Inc, something is going to go wrong.

Buffett, who is called the "Oracle of Omaha" and one of the world's richest men, attracts about 40,000 people a year to the city for the annual meeting of his ice-cream-to-insurance conglomerate Berkshire Hathaway Inc (BRKa.N) (BRKb.N).

This weekend he was under the microscope, facing global media as well as shareholders, regarding the Sokol incident.

And yet, Buffett's feelings toward Sokol are neither protective, nor violent.

"I know what's happened and perhaps investigative authorities will develop it more fully over time," he said.

Berkshire Hathaway is not looking into any other trades by Sokol aside from Lubrizol, Buffett said.

"I know nothing in terms of his trading activities or anything of the sort," Buffett said.

Buffett also addressed the possibility of his successor and said "it would be almost impossible" to consider a CEO from outside Berkshire.

The next chief executive does not need to be a showman or attract large crowds to an annual meeting, Buffett said.

In more than five hours of questioning from shareholders on Saturday, Buffett gave his most public comments yet on the resignation of Sokol, his one-time presumed successor who resigned in March amid a growing scandal over stock trading.

Buffett called Sokol's behavior -- allegedly misleading Berkshire about the nature of a $10 million investment in Lubrizol Corp before suggesting Buffett buy the company -- "inexplicable and inexcusable."

Sokol's lawyer slammed Buffett in a statement for making his client a scapegoat.

Buffett also addressed a share buyback program and said it would be self-defeating to buy back shares. He said he would buy back stock if Berkshire were well below the bottom range of intrinsic value.

(Reporting by Ben Berkowitz in Omaha, writing by Jennifer Saba in New York; Editing by Bernard Orr)

Tens of thousands of Berkshire Hathaway shareholders who descended on Omaha this weekend for the conglomerate's annual meeting got one unmistakable message from Buffett -- no matter how bad the economy, or the deficit, or the political divide, the United States is as good a place to live and work as ever.

"I don't see how anybody can be other than enthused about this country," Buffett told Berkshire shareholders on Saturday.

Buffett, often called the "Oracle of Omaha," is one of the world's richest men and leads a conglomerate that owns railroads, insurers and ice cream parlors.

The comments echo those Buffett made in February in his annual shareholder letter, but the words still may encourage investors looking sideways at the country, particularly after Standard & Poor's put the U.S. government's critical "AAA" credit rating on a negative credit watch.

Buffett told Reuters Insider that S&P's move was premature, given the U.S. government issues debt only in dollars and can simply print more money to pay debt if absolutely needed.

"The United States is not going to default on any obligation," Buffett told Insider in an interview after the annual meeting. "We are not a credit risk, believe me."

Where Buffett's enthusiasm wanes to any degree, it is mostly in conversation on the dollar, which he said is sure to weaken over time, like most other currencies.

Buffett, as usual, said he was shying away from fixed-income investments for Berkshire's part, even as he keeps some of his personal wealth in Treasuries for safety's sake.

Some worry that safety could be threatened by the debate over the national debt ceiling, an issue that has divided Congress in recent weeks and gotten more tense as the country gets closer to its legal limit on debt issuance.

Buffett, asked about the possibility Congress would not raise the ceiling, made one of his most-repeated comments of the whole weekend, saying it would be the legislature's "most asinine act" in its history.

Buffett also affirmed his support for the banking sector, where he has big bets on Wells Fargo and U.S. Bancorp, calling the odds of another banking crisis "very very low."

His partner, Vice Chairman Charlie Munger, was less sanguine about Europe and the effects of the sovereign debt crisis, saying the continent has "a hell of a problem" in comparison.

(Reporting by Ben Berkowitz, editing by Maureen Bavdek, Bernard Orr)

Robust corporate earnings and the Federal Reserve's promise to keep liquidity cheap have fueled the Nasdaq to a 10-year high and driven the Dow and the S&P to their highest levels since 2008.

"We are clearly seeing signs of overbought conditions but there is still a lot of optimism, especially after the S&P broke well above the 1,340 range. The next ceiling is really not until the 1,400 level," said Stephen Massocca, managing director of Wedbush Morgan in San Francisco.

Heading into May, a seasonally weak month for stocks, the Dow and the Nasdaq posted their best monthly performance since December. At Friday's closing bell, the S&P 500 was up 8.4 percent for the year.

With earnings season coming to an end, investors will shift their focus to economic data next week, especially the April employment report on Friday. Investors will scrutinize the jobs data for signs of improvement in the labor market.

After a mixed batch of data this week, investors would need to see a solid gain in jobs to believe in sustainable economic growth. Nasdaq's rebalancing of its index may also cause a bit of a stir in the market next week.

But despite the concerns, options investors were buying less protection against a market correction, according to James Dailey, portfolio manager of TEAM Asset Strategy Fund in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania.

"It's surprising, but ironically, the put-to-call ratio on S&P 500 rose late last week and early this week, but fell in the last few days," he said.

"We might see some reaction to the overbought conditions depending on the jobs number, but still, that would be a minor pullback, maybe down to test the 1,340 levels."

Other economic data due next week include the ISM manufacturing data and domestic car sales on Monday, the ISM services-sector data on Wednesday, and weekly jobless claims on Thursday.

NASDAQ REBALANCING

Nasdaq will be rebalancing its benchmark Nasdaq 100 index on Monday that will slash Apple Inc's (AAPL.O) weighting. The rebalancing will affect the relative weights of all the securities in the index and cause popular index-tracking funds such as the PowerShares QQQ (QQQ.O) to buy and sell shares to match the new composition.

"Apple shares are likely to see some volatility, but unlike 10 years ago, hedge funds and traders start trading on this (the rebalancing) from weeks ahead, so it won't be a huge event on the overall market," said Jack DeGan, chief investment officer of Harbor Advisory Corp in Portsmouth, New Hampshire.

The CBOE Volatility Index or VIX .VIX, Wall Street's so-called fear gauge, was relatively low, ending Friday's session below 15, although it was up 0.9 percent for the day.

"While conditions of being overbought and oversold can stick around for a while, as a trader, I feel this market is just too complacent. That is why I advocate looking at insurance, but also at this stage in the wave, ride it and not try to swim against it," said Joe Cusick, senior market analyst at Chicago-based online brokerage firm optionsXpress.

The VIX usually moves inversely with the S&P 500, tracking options prices that investors are willing to pay as protection on the price moves of the underlying stocks.

So far, 324 of the S&P 500 companies have reported earnings, of which 73 percent were above analysts' expectations, according to Thomson Reuters data. In a typical quarter, 62 percent of companies beat estimates.

(Reporting by Angela Moon; Editing by Jan Paschal)