Stock futures down; new home sales data eyed

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Stock index futures pointed to a slightly lower open on Wall Street on Monday, as investors take a breather following last week's strong gains sparked by a flurry of reassuring company earnings.

At 5 a.m. ET, futures for the S&P 500 were down 0.2 percent, Dow Jones futures were down 0.3 percent, while Nasdaq 100 futures fell 0.1 percent.

Pharma stocks will be in the spotlight after The Wall Street Journal reported on Sunday, citing a person familiar with the matter, that GlaxoSmithKline made a "very casual approach" to Genzyme Corp asking to be notified if Genzyme considered selling itself.

Genzyme jumped 15.4 percent to $62.52 on Friday after French drugmaker Sanofi-Aventis approached the biotechnology company about an acquisition.

European stocks dipped in morning trade, as GlaxoSmithKline fell 1.8 percent on the report it is eyeing Genzyme, eclipsing gains in most banking stocks following the release of the sector's stress test results, which showed only seven of 91 banks tested failed the tests. <.EU>

BP Plc was up 1.6 percent in London on expectations the beleaguered company would announce changes at the top in the next 24 hours, with the anticipated departure of CEO Tony Hayward, under fire for his handling of the worst oil spill in U.S. history.

Hayward would be replaced by Bob Dudley, an American executive who is managing the response operation to the spill in the Gulf of Mexico, sources close to the British oil major say.

On the data front, the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago releases its Chicago Fed National Activity Index for June, at 8:30 a.m. ET; the Commerce Department releases new home sales for June, at 1400 GMT. Economists in a Reuters survey forecast a total of 320,000 annualized units in June compared with 300,000 in May.

On the earnings front, Legg Mason , Fluor Corp. , Fmc Tech. , Lorillard , Masco , Plum Creek Timber and Range Resources are due to report results on Monday.

U.S. stocks rose on Friday, as GE's dividend hike boosted investor sentiment, the Dow Jones industrial average <.DJI> gained 102.32 points, or 0.99 percent, to 10,424.62, and The Nasdaq Composite Index <.IXIC> added 23.58 points, or 1.05 percent, to 2,269.47.

The Standard & Poor's 500 Index <.SPX> rose 8.99 points, or 0.82 percent, to 1,102.66, closing above the key 1,100 level for the first time in a month after coming close but failing four times in July. Friday's climb -- along with other chart moves such as a key break on the index's daily moving average convergence-divergence, or MACD -- sent a bullish technical signal to investors.

(Reporting by Blaise Robinson; Editing by Sharon Lindores)