Futures were lower Monday amid concerns over debt problems in the United States and Europe, causing investors to move into safe haven assets like gold, which hit another record high.
With very little progress made over the weekend and no talks scheduled for today, debt negotiations to avert a default have failed to make a breakthrough so far.
Halliburton gained after the oilfield services company reported a 54 percent jump in profitas a U.S. drilling boom showed no signs of cooling off.
Earnings take center stage this week, with half of the Dow and 113 members of the S&P expected to report.
IBM and Mosaic are slated to report after-the-bell.
Meanwhile, News Corp remains in focus as the phone hacking scandal grows. Rebekah Brooks, former chief executive of News Corp's British newspaper arm News International, was released on bail early on Monday after being questioned over the phone-hacking scandal, the Metropolitan police said in a statement on Monday.
Brooks is set to appear before a parliamentary committee in London on Tuesday along with James and Rupert Murdoch.
Gold jumped to record highs above $1,600 an ounce, as bought into the metal as a haven from risk.
The July NAHB/Wells Fargo Housing Market index is the only notable macroeconomic report due out on Monday, at 10 am New York time.
Coming Up This Week:
MONDAY: Treasury international capital, housing market index; Earnings from IBM
TUESDAY: Housing starts, Fed's Hoenig speaks; Earnings from BofA, Coca-Cola, Goldman Sachs, J&J, Wells Fargo, Apple and Yahoo
WEDNESDAY: Weekly mortgage apps, existing home sales, oil inventories; Earnings from Altria, United Tech, Abbott Labs, Blackrock, AmEx, Intel, Qualcomm and Ebay
THURSDAY: Weekly jobless claims, Philadelhia Fed survey, money supply; Earnings from AT&T, Morgan Stanley, Nokia, PepsiCo, Freeport McMoran, Travelers, Mircrosoft, AMD and SanDisk
FRIDAY: No major econ. news expected; Earnings from Caterpillar, GE, McDonald's, Schlumberger, Verizon, Honeywell
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