9:00AM Buyout news and strong earnings boost pre-market mood.

U.S. stock futures moved to the upside on Monday, boosted by a multibillion-dollar deal in the oil drilling sector as well as stronger-than-expected earnings from drug makers Merck and Schering-Plough.

In buyout news, Transocean and GlobalSantaFe said that they agreed to combine to form a $53 billion drilling contractor. Further in M&A action, United Rentals (URI: chart) agreed to be taken private by affiliates of Cerberus Capital Management LP in a $4 billion cash deal. The stock gained 2.7% in pre-market trading.In deal speculations news, Tellabs (TLAB: chart) climbed 18% amid reports that Nokia Siemens Networks, the venture between Nokia (NOK: chart) and Siemens (SI: chart), is offering between $16. and $17 a share for it.

On the merger news front, Pharmaceutical giant Merck (MRK: chart) climbed 4.5% in pre-open trade amid 12% increase in Q2 profit. Schering-Plough (SGP: chart) rose 3.7% after it said its Q2 profit more than doubled. American Express (AXP: chart) and Texas Instruments (TXN: chart) are expected to release financial results later on Monday. S&P 500 futures rose 4 points at 1,549.10 and Nasdaq 100 futures tacked on 2.25 points at 2,057.50. Dow industrial futures climbed 32 points, helped by the Merck results.


8:15AM Transocean and GlobalSantaFe agreed to merge to form a $53 billion drilling contractor.

Transocean, Inc. (RIG: chart) and GlobalSantaFe Corp. (GSF: chart) announced an agreement to merge to form a $53 billion drilling contractor. Under the terms of the deal, Transocean shareholders will receive $33.03 in cash and 0.6996 shares of the combined company for each Transocean share they hold. At the same time, GlobalSantaFe stockholders will get $22.46 in cash and 0.4757 shares of the combined company for each GlobalSantaFe share they hold.

The new company will be named Transocean. It will retain principal offices in Houston and trade on the NYSE under the RIG symbol. After the completion of the merger, GlobalSantaFe''s Chairman Robert Rose will become chairman of the new company while Transocean current CEO Robert Long will keep the same position in the merged firm.


6:00PM Mumbai, 10:00AM New York – Sensex in India at yet another record on infrastructure stocks and IPO listing.

Sensex in India continued its climb led by real estate and earnings driven stocks. Sensex closed up 166.65 or 1.1% to 15,732.20. Early morning trading was weak on the worries of the declines in Asian markets. In the afternoon trading averages recovered with the optimism on earnings sales from industrial and infrastructure companies.

Of the stocks traded on BSE, 1,303 stocks gained, 1,278 declined, and 77 stocks were unchanged. Trading volume on the exchange declined nearly 18% to 4,825 crore rupees (or $1.2 billion) from 5,791 crore rupees.


Gainers

Larsen & Toubro jumped 7.4% to 2,659 rupees on an upgrade from a broker and optimism that finance ministry will release more funds for infrastructure projects. India with more than $220 billion foreign exchange reserve has pledged $5 billion to improvement of roads, ports and highway networks. The poor infrastructure is limiting the economic growth and creating logistics and production bottlenecks. L&T reported a week ago that its orders in the previous quarter jumped 30%.

GMR Infrastructure soared 9% to 960 rupees. Three days ago company won a project to build and operate terminal for Turkish airport project worth $1.8 billion euros. The company in joint venture with Malaysian airport and Turkey based Limak Holdings won 20 years rights to operate the international terminal.

Ahead of earnings, Bharat Heavy Electrical or BHEL, surged 7.5% to 1,778 rupees on the news that the company has received orders of 1,829 crore rupees to set up three power plants in Haryana. The three power plants of 500 MW project is a joint venture among Haryana State Electric Board, National Thermal Power Corporation, and Indraprastha Power Generation.

Hindustan Unilever jumped 4.5% to 203.10 rupees after the company plans to buyback its shares and ahead of its earnings a week from today.

Makers of scooters and automobiles increased on the hopes that rates are not likely to rise at least for a while. Baja Auto jumped 4.2% to 2,425 rupees, Maruti Udyog increased 0.9% to 835 rupees, and Tata Motors increased 0.7% to 772 rupees.

Infrastructure and real estate stocks participated in the rally. Mahindra Gesco soared 6.4% to 631 rupees, DLF jumped 4.1% to 673.05 rupees, and Unitech increased 2.2% to 576.5 rupees.