Futures point to weak Wall St. start; results eyed

U.S. index futures point to a weak start on Wall Street. Futures for the S&P 500, for the Dow Jones industrial average and Nasdaq are down 0.3%.
Genentech will be in focus after Roche offered to acquire all outstanding shares in its U.S. partner for $43.7 billion in cash, a 9% premium to Friday's close.
Busy day for corporate results, with numbers due from a clutch of companies including computer maker Apple, Bank of America, medical device maker Boston Scientific , pharmaceutical data group IMS Health and drugmakers Merck & Co and Schering-Plough plus chipmaker Texas Instruments
Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson said on Sunday that the U.S. economy needed months to recover from its slowdown but the banking system remained sound despite a home mortgage crisis that could cause more problems.
Oil trades $1.80 a barrel higher at $130.68 after its biggest one-week slide on record last week.
On Friday, the Dow Jones industrial average rose 0.4%, S&P was flat and the Nasdaq lost 1.3% on disappointing results from Google and Microsoft.