Investing.com - U.S. stock futures pointed to a lower open on Monday, as concerns over violence in Iraq continued to weigh on global equity markets and after Friday's U.S. consumer sentiment data sparked worries over strength of the economic recovery.
Ahead of the open, the Dow 30 futures pointed to a 0.24% fall, S&P 500 futures signaled a 0.25% decline, while the Nasdaq 100 futures indicated a 0.23% loss.
Concerns over the ongoing Sunni insurgency in Iraq continued to weigh on market sentiment, amid fears over the impact of reduced oil supply from one of the world’s largest producers on global growth.
Markets were also jittery after the preliminary reading of the University of Michigan's consumer sentiment index for June came in at 81.2 on Friday, down from 81.9 in May, missing expectations for an uptick to 83.0.
OpenTable (NASDAQ:OPEN) was expected to remain in the spotlight after the stock skyrocketed over 48% on Friday, when Priceline (NASDAQ:PCLN) said it would acquire the online restaurant reservation service for $2.6 billion.
In more M&A news, Medtronic (NYSE:MDT), a maker of medical devices, agreed to buy Covidien (NYSE:COV) for $42.9 billion in cash and stock.
Citigroup (NYSE:C) was also likely to be active after Bloomberg reported last week that the Justice Department asked the lender for more than $10 billion to settle an investigation into its sale of mortgage-backed bonds ahead of the 2008 financial crisis.
Elsewhere, Starbucks (NASDAQ:SBUX) plummeted 1.99% in pre-market trade amid reports the coffee chain is offering a program that would allow its workers to earn an online college degree at Arizona State University at a steeply discounted rate.
The company added that it plans to phase out its existing tuition reimbursement program, which gave workers up to $1,000 a year for education at certain schools.
Across the Atlantic, European stock markets were lower. The DJ Euro Stoxx 50 declined 0.64%, France’s CAC 40 retreated 0.57%, Germany's DAX slid 0.35%, while Britain's FTSE 100 fell 0.20%.
During the Asian trading session, Hong Kong's Hang Seng eased 0.08%, while Japan’s Nikkei 225 tumbled 1.09%.
Later in the day, the U.S. was to produce data on industrial production and manufacturing activity in the Empire State.