Stock futures creep up; eyes on earnings

At 1017 GMT, futures for the S&P 500 were flat, Dow Jones futures were up 0.3 percent and Nasdaq 100 futures were up 0.1 percent.

Economic indicators on tap for Monday include a report on existing home sales from the National Association of Realtors, while on the earnings front, nearly 30 big companies will report earnings, including American Express Co , Caterpillar Inc and McDonald's Corp .

President Barack Obama's top economic adviser would not rule out on Sunday that more money may be needed to stabilize the U.S. financial system as a deep recession increases banks' losses. Lawrence Summers, head of the National Economic Council, also said there was no question that tax cuts passed under former President George W. Bush needed to be repealed, though he would not be pinned down on exactly when.

Pfizer Inc , the No.1 drugmaker, was close to a $68 billion purchase of U.S. rival Wyeth in a move to diversify its revenue base, sources familiar with the situation said. The boards of the U.S. rivals held separate meetings on Sunday to finalize an agreement and an announcement was seen as imminent, said three sources with direct knowledge of the talks.

The International Monetary Fund will cut its 2009 global growth forecast again, this time to between 1 percent and 1.5 percent, as economic conditions deteriorate further, an IMF official said on Sunday. "It will be revised to 1 to 1.5 percent in 2009, which is huge," Axel Bertuch-Samuels, deputy director of the IMF's monetary and capital markets department, told Reuters on the sidelines of a conference in the United Arab Emirates.

Chrysler LLC on Sunday urged its U.S. dealers to slash costs and order more of its vehicles as the automaker races to restructure in order to secure additional government aid.

Toyota Motor <7203.T> expects to produce 6.5 million vehicles globally on a parent company basis this year, down more than 20 percent from an estimated 8.2 million last year, the Chunichi newspaper reported.

Visteon Corp , one of Ford Motor Co's biggest parts suppliers, has hired legal and financial advisers to prepare for possible bankruptcy proceedings, the Wall Street Journal reported, quoting people familiar with the matter.

Smurfit-Stone Container Corp , a major corrugated packaging maker, said its U.S. and Canadian operations filed for chapter 11 bankruptcy protection to restructure its debt.

Boeing Co will be in focus after a source said on Sunday the French state plans to inject 5 billion euros ($6.5 billion) into banks with the aim of financing airplane purchases to help European planemaker Airbus .

In Europe, Philips Electronics swung to a fourth quarter net loss and said it would cut 6,000 jobs, while Dutch financial group ING revealed plans for 7,000 job losses as it took a 2008 loss of 1 billion euros ($1.3 billion) and tapped into 22 billion euros of Dutch state loan guarantees.

(Reporting by Blaise Robinson; Editing by Hans Peters)

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