Stock index futures were little changed on Monday as investors assessed whether a rally that started about two months ago had any more steam left.

The S&P's seven-week-long advance came to an end last week, while the Dow notched its eighth week of gains. The Dow's streak is the longest since a March-through-April run in 2010, when the Dow average hit a high that stood for six weeks.

Many technical analysts and other market observers see the uptrend continuing through at least the first half of the year, but others have forecast a pullback in the near term.

We could be nearing a point where the market gives back some of its gains, though I don't think it will give back all of them, said Robert Pavlik, chief market strategist at Banyan Partners LLC in Palm Beach Gardens, Florida. I'm comfortable with the gains we've had because I believe the economy is back on track.

The earnings season will continue to be a factor, with more than 10 Dow components set to report this week. McDonald's Corp is scheduled for Monday, along with American Express Co after the bell. Bellwethers Texas Instruments Inc and are also scheduled. No economic data is expected on Monday.

Halliburton Co rose 1 percent to $39.59 in premarket trading after the oilfield services company reported a fourth-quarter profit that beat expectations.

This falls right in line with the strong results out of Schlumberger Ltd and suggests there's still plenty more upside potential left in this sector, Pavlik said.

S&P 500 futures rose 0.6 point and were slightly 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 lost 3 points, and Nasdaq 100 futures slipped 1.75 points.

The Nasdaq fell more than 2 percent last week as investors pulled back from outperforming technology shares.

Sara Lee Corp will weigh an offer this week from a group of private equity firms that values the company at nearly $13 billion, a source said. The food company rose 1.6 percent to $19 premarket.

Packaging and paper company RockTenn Co is buying bigger rival Smurfit-Stone Container Corp for $3.5 billion. Smurfit-Stone shot up 21.7 percent to $33.50 before the bell.

Investors will look to U.S. President Barack Obama's annual State of the Union address Tuesday night in an address that will likely focus on jobs and economic growth.

The Federal Reserve's FOMC two-day meeting, which ends on Wednesday, will also draw significant interest. The Fed was expected to acknowledge brighter economic prospects without changing the course of its much-maligned bond buying.

Fourth-quarter gross domestic product data was due on Friday, with economists expecting that the economy expanded at a 3.6 percent pace, up from the third quarter's 2.6 percent.

On Friday, the Dow and S&P 500 rose after estimate-beating results from General Electric Co , a bellwether for the economy and corporate America.

(Editing by Jeffrey Benkoe)

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