By Steve Goldstein, MarketWatch
LONDON (MarketWatch) -- U.S. stock futures rose Monday as a slate of merger activity, including the sale of American International Group's Asia operations, greeted the new month.
S&P 500 futures rose 4.1 points to 1,107.50 and Nasdaq 100 futures rose 7.75 points to 1,826.20. Futures on the Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 39 points.
The S&P 500 lost 0.4% last week but gained 2.9% for the month.
Indications of a Franco-German rescue for Greece as well as the merger news helped overseas markets rise, with the German DAX rising 1.2% and the Nikkei 225 up 0.5% in Tokyo.
Key economic reports also are due Monday, with the Institute for Supply Management's manufacturing index for February due at 10 a.m. Eastern. Economists polled by MarketWatch expect the gauge to still show growth but fall from January's 58.4% level.
Also out Monday is data on personal income and construction spending.
But M&A also was in the spotlight. Prudential (PUK 18.50, +0.22, +1.20%) , unrelated to the American insurer of the same name, said it's going to buy the Asian operations of American International Group (AIG 28.20, +3.43, +13.85%) for $35.5 billion in cash and stock. Prudential shares tumbled 12% in London.
Merck KGaA, unrelated to the U.S. drugmaker of the same name, said it's going to buy biotech Millipore (MIL 104.75, +10.34, +10.95%) for $7.2 billion.
MSCI (MXB 29.98, +0.14, +0.47%) said it's going to buy RiskMetrics (RISK 18.63, -0.06, -0.32%) for $1.55 billion, or $21.75 a share, in cash and stock.
Meanwhile, Japan's Astellas Pharma offered $3.5 billion, or $52 a share, in cash in a hostile bid for OSI Pharmaceuticals (OSIP 54.25, +17.23, +46.54%) .
HSBC Holdings (HBC 51.36, -3.56, -6.48%) reported a 2% rise in its annual profit on a drop in taxes, missing analyst estimates, with the group's Asia ex-Hong Kong business lagging.
Berkshire Hathaway (BRK.B 80.13, +0.73, +0.92%) reported that the conglomerate's book value rose 19.8% to $84,487 a share and net income grew 61% as Warren Buffett took aim at big-bank executives.
Copper futures were particularly strong as Chile's earthquake raised fears over supplies, while gold futures were marginally lower.
The British pound fell below the $1.50 level for the first time since May 2009 as the Prudential deal raised concerns in the market that it would need to sell sterling to buy U.S. dollars.
