NEW YORK (Reuters) - Stock futures fell sharply on Monday as expectations waned that a European Union summit this week would help soothe the escalating euro zone debt crisis.
A German government spokesman said the EU will probably not take any decisions on Greece in the upcoming summit, in which Greeks were hoping to ease the terms of their bailout.
Greece's new prime minister and finance minister will miss the meeting scheduled for Thursday and Friday, due to illness, which also delayed a visit to Athens by Greece's international lenders.
A European equity benchmark <.FTEU3> fell more than 1 percent and the dollar, seen as a safe-haven when European markets are volatile, rose as worries about faltering global growth lingered after last week's soft manufacturing data worldwide. <.EU>
The U.S. data calendar includes the Chicago Fed National Activity Index for May due at 8:30 a.m. EDT and the Commerce Department's new home sales for May at 10 a.m.. Economists in a Reuters survey forecast a total of 346,000 annualized units compared with 343,000 in April.
S&P 500 futures fell 9.3 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 fell 78 points, and Nasdaq 100 futures lost 16.75 points.
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U.S. stocks ended higher on Friday, led by gains in bank shares, as the S&P 500 index bounced back from its second-worst decline of the year. However, the gains were not enough to push stocks into positive territory for the week.
(Reporting by Rodrigo Campos Editing by W Simon)
