Stock index futures pointed to a higher open on Wall Street on Monday, signaling a rebound after the previous session's steep losses, with futures for the S&P 500 up 0.74 percent, Dow Jones futures up 0.68 percent and Nasdaq 100 futures up 0.02 percent at 4:12 a.m. EST.

The banking sector will be in the spotlight after CIT Group Inc , a U.S. lender to hundreds of thousands of small and medium-sized businesses, filed for bankruptcy on Sunday, as the global financial crisis left it unable to fund itself and the recession hit its loans.

Goldman Sachs Group Inc is in talks to buy millions of dollars of tax credits from Fannie Mae , but the U.S. Treasury could block the deal, The Wall Street Journal reported on Sunday.

Bank of New York Mellon Corp Chief Executive Robert Kelly was recently approached about taking the CEO job at Bank of America Corp , but he has shown no interest in the job, The Wall Street Journal reported.

Japan's Nikkei stock average dropped 2.3 percent on Monday, with exporters hit by a stronger yen and in the wake of Wall Street's selloff on Friday, while European shares were slightly down in morning trade, adding to Friday's big losses, led lower by pharma stocks such as Roche and Novartis .

Oil rose above $77 a barrel on Monday, retracing some of the previous session's 3.6 percent drop, as bullish manufacturing data from China helped to allay fears about the pace of the rebound in global energy demand.

After weak U.S. consumer sentiment data released on Friday, investors were bracing for more U.S. macro data on Monday on construction spending, pending home sales as well as data from the Institute of Supply Management.

On the macro front in Asia, HSBC's China Purchasing Managers' Index (PMI) rose to an 18-month high in October of 55.4 from 55.0 in September, pointing to sustained strength in the country's vast manufacturing sector.

In company news, U.S. wine and spirits maker Constellation Brands Inc said it is talking to several companies to sell or merge a part of its Australian and UK wine operations.

Comcast Corp and General Electric Co are closer to a deal to give Comcast a 51 percent stake in NBC Universal and a formal announcement may be made in the coming week, the New York Times said, citing people briefed on the talks.

Denbury Resources Inc has agreed to buy Encore Acquisition Co for $3.2 billion to create one of North America's largest oil production and exploration companies.

The Dow industrials suffered its worst slide since July on Friday on concerns that the economic recovery won't be robust enough to sustain the seven-month stock rally, while financials sank on renewed worries about Citigroup's balance sheet.

The Dow Jones industrial average <.DJI> slid 249.85 points, or 2.51 percent, to end at 9,712.73. The Standard & Poor's 500 Index <.SPX> tumbled 29.92 points, or 2.81 percent, to 1,036.19. The Nasdaq Composite Index <.IXIC> dropped 52.44 points, or 2.50 percent, to close at 2,045.11.

(Reporting by Blaise Robinson; Editing by Jon Loades-Carter)

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