Investing.com - Wall Street futures pointed to a flat open on Monday at the beginning of the fourth quarter as investors looked ahead to data that will gauge the health of the U.S. manufacturing sector.
The blue-chip Dow futures edged forward 6 points, or 0.03%, by 6:58AM ET (10:58GMT), the S&P 500 futures slipped less than a point, or 0.02%, while the tech-heavy Nasdaq 100 futures also inched down less than a point, or 0.01%.
On Friday, the S&P 500 and Dow closed with quarterly gains 3.31% and 2.11%, respectively, in what was a four-quarter winning streak. Meanwhile, the Nasdaq jumped 9.69% for the June to September period, managing to break a two-quarter slide.
On the U.S. economic front, all eyes will be on data for the manufacturing sector that is expected to show activity returned to expansion in September.
The U.S. Institute of Supply Management (ISM) is to release its manufacturing purchasing managers’ index (PMI) at 10:00AM ET (14:00GMT) on Monday. The gauge is expected to rise to 50.3, after falling to a seven-month low of 49.4 a month earlier.
Anything above 50.0 signals expansion, below indicates contraction.
On the company front, more buyout rumors sent shares of Twitter Inc (NYSE:TWTR) almost 6% higher in pre-market trade on Monday.
Late Friday, Bloomberg cited sources saying that Google (NASDAQ:GOOGL) had hired Lazard Ltd to explore a possible purchase of the social media company.
The move could pit Alphabet’s largest subsidiary against other potential suitors such as Salesforce.com (NYSE:CRM), Walt Disney Company (NYSE:DIS) or Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT).
In other M&A news, Janus Capital Group Inc (NYSE:JNS), home of bond guru Bill Gross, and U.K.-based Henderson Group Plc (LON:HGGH) announced a merger that will create a investment firm managing more than $320 billion in assets.
In other company news, Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA) jumped close to 4% in pre-market trade on Monday after posting a 70% increase in quarterly deliveries.
Meanwhile in oil markets, crude kicked off the quarter with gains, adding to what had been its biggest monthly rise since April.
Investors continued to weigh OPEC’s preliminary agreement to reach a production cap deal at its November 30 meeting, though concern remained over the downward pressure on prices from the global supply glut.
U.S. crude futures traded up 0.91% to $48.68 by 7:00AM ET (11:00AM GMT), while Brent oil gained 0.82% to $50.60.
Elsewhere, cable hit a three-month low with the pound also hitting a three-year low against the euro, after British Prime Minister Theresa May confirmed that the U.K. would trigger Article 50 by the end of March 2017.
Article 50 is the formal procedure necessary to officially announce its June 23 decision to leave the European Union (EU), known as a Brexit, and begin forging new trade arrangements.
Manufacturing activity in both the U.K. and euro zone continued to recover from July’s low, hit by concern over the impact of the Brexit and uncertainty over the eventual trading agreement. Of note, British manufacturing activity hit its highest level since June 2014, according to Markit.
Equities outside the U.S. were mostly higher on Monday, though China and Germany were both closed for holidays.