* Five days left before Obama deadline for deal deal
* Halliburton's quarterly profit soars, stock higher
* News Corp falls after former top exec arrested
* Futures lower: Dow 77 pts, S&P 8.6 pts, Nasdaq 21.25 pts
* For up-to-the-minute market news see [STXNEWS/US] (Updates prices, adds analyst comment)
By Ryan Vlastelica
NEW YORK, July 18 (Reuters) - U.S. stock index futures slumped on Monday with no deal in sight on raising the U.S. debt ceiling and investors still fretting over ongoing fiscal problems in Europe.
An expected strong earnings season could lift equities this
week, though encouraging results last week from Google Inc
Halliburton Co
With five days remaining before U.S. President Barack Obama's deadline for a deal to raise the government's debt ceiling, Republicans and Democrats were still divided on a plan to cut the nation's deficit and raise the debt limit in time to avoid an unprecedented default. That outcome was seen seen as unlikely, though. [ID:nN1E76G06R] and [ID:nUSBUDGET]
"There's a perfect storm happening on a global macroeconomic basis with no debt deal here and the ongoing issues in Europe, and the market is looking at all these things and is fairly anxious," said Oliver Pursche, president of Gary Goldberg Financial Services in Suffern, New York.
S&P 500 futures
European equities added to last week's losses early Monday, led lower by banks. Results from the region's regulatory stress tests late Friday failed to dispel concerns over the potential impact from the region's sovereign debt crisis.
The FTSEurofirst 300 <.FTEU3> index of top shares fell 1.2
percent, while the Stoxx Europe 600 banking index <.SX7P> lost
2.2 percent. U.S.-listed shares of Barclays Plc
News Corp
Toymaker Hasbro Inc
International Business Machines Corp
"For people like myself, who are fairly optimistic about the economic outlook, we're looking for earnings to validate our optimism," Pursche said. "However, because of the macro issues, we may not see a big lift on them. They may just set us up for gains in the second half of the year."
The Nasdaq closed up 1 percent on Friday, helped by Google's blowout quarter, while the Dow and S&P posted modest gains. The advances were a bright spot in a stretch dominated by selling, driven by concerns over the U.S. and European fiscal issues. (Reporting by Ryan Vlastelica; editing by Jeffrey Benkoe)