Before the Bell

Theres nothing like a day off to put Wall Street in an optimistic state of mind, especially when the M&A folks worked through the holiday weekend.

Stock futures are up a bit even as those of us returning from driving trips are painfully aware of high energy prices.The economic agenda includes the consumer confidence index after the opening bell.

U.S. Treasuries have fallen slightly as stock markets keep drawing money from safe havens.The dollar is down against major currencies in what dealers and analysts attribute to selling by emerging market central banks in routine forex reserve management.

Oil prices have fallen, but London Brent is still above $69 a barrel and U.S. crude is above $64 on concerns about supplies from Nigeria and low gasoline stocks in the United States.And now for the M&A:In the ABN AMRO takeover saga, the Royal Bank of Scotland consortium has bid $95.7 billion, trumping a bid from Barclays.

The Wall Street Journal says Tishman Speyer Properties and Lehman Brothers Holdings are close to a deal to buy real estate investment trust Archstone-Smith, while suitors are talking - separately - to computer retailer CDW and telecommunications equipment maker Avaya.A Swedish newspaper says Ford is planning to sell Volvo, with BMW a possible buyer.

And Brazil's JBS-Friboi is, er, beefing up its operations with the planned purchase of Swift & Co.

Lisa Von Ahn - Editor
www.reuters.com