NEW YORK (Business News) - Stock index futures rose on Monday, building on the previous week's strong gains, as optimism grew that the upcoming European Union summit would break new ground to resolve the euro zone debt crisis.
* President Nicolas Sarkozy and German Chancellor Angela Merkel are due to meet in Paris later on Monday. They are under pressure to iron out differences on how to centralize control of euro zone budgets to resolve the crisis.
* They will try to reach common ground on measures to boost coercive budget discipline in the region, likely through an EU treaty change, which they want all 27 EU leaders to approve.
* While the summit could still disappoint investors, equities have been helped recently by rising hopes of forthcoming decisive action in the euro zone. Indexes posted their largest weekly percentage advance last week since mid-March 2009. Those gains also came on a U.S. unemployment rate that unexpectedly dropped to a 2-1/2 year low.
* Adding to the belief that Europe would be taking adequate steps to address its issues, Italy un veiled a $ 40.32 billion package of austerity measures, which eased tensions surrounding the country's finances. European stocks .FTEU3 rose 0.7 percent.
* S&P 500 futures rose 12 points and were above fair value, a formula that evaluates pricing by taking into account interest rates, dividends and time to expiration on the contract. Dow Jones industrial average futures added 117 points and Nasdaq 100 futures rose 22.5 points.
* Despite the previous week's gains, the S&P 500 on Friday failed to break through technical resistance near its 200-day moving average. Breaching that level could signal more gains.
* Investors will be looking ahead to the Institute for Supply Management's November non-manufacturing index, which will be released at 10 a.m. Economists forecast a reading of 53.5 versus 52.9 in October. Last week, the ISM's November manufacturing index rose mor e than expected.
* In addition, October factory orders are seen dropping 0.3 percent after a 0.3 percent rise in September.
* Germany's SAP (SAPG.DE) announced a $ 3.4 billion cash deal to buy web-based software company SuccessFactors (SFSF.N).
* Commercial Metals Co (CMC.N) rejected investor Carl Icahn's buyout bid, saying the offer substantially undervalued the company.
* U.S. stocks ended flat on Friday as investors were reluctant to make bets going into the long weekend after Wall Street's best week in almost three years.
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