Stock Futures Signal Sharp Gains for Equities

Stock index futures pointed to a sharply higher open for equities on Wall Street on Monday, with futures for the S&P 500, the Dow Jones and the Nasdaq 100 rising 2.2 to 2.6 percent.

U.S. retailers racked up a record $52.4 billion in sales over the Thanksgiving weekend, a 16.4 percent jump from a year ago, as early hours and attractive promotions brought out more shoppers, an industry trade group said on Sunday.

U.S. oil company Anadarko Petroleum said its major gas finds offshore Mozambique were actually twice as large as it earlier thought, adding support to hopes that East Africa will become another major gas production center.

The Commerce Department releases at 10 a.m. ET new home sales for October. Economists forecast a total of 315,000 annualized units, compared with 313,000 units in September.

Ternium , Latin America's second-largest steelmaker, said on Sunday it would pay $2.2 billion to buy a stake in Brazilian rival Usiminas from two of its minority shareholders, despite tough conditions for mills in the continent's largest economy.

The Commerce Department will release October building permits. In the original October release, 653,000 permits were reported.

The Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago releases at 1230 GMT its Chicago Fed Midwest Manufacturing Index for October. The index read 85.2 in September.

President Barack Obama will press European Union officials on Monday to reach a definitive solution to their sovereign debt crisis which is emerging as a major 2012 U.S. election worry.

European stocks <.FTEU3> rose more than 2 percent on Monday in a rally mostly seen as technical, led by shares of financial institutions helped by renewed hopes of fresh measures to fight the euro zone debt crisis.

Italy's prime minister faces a testing week as he seeks to shore up the country's strained public finances, with an IMF mission expected in Rome and market pressure building to a point where outside help may be needed to stem a full-scale debt emergency.

U.S. stocks posted seven straight sessions of losses on Friday, ending the worst week in two months, as the lack of a credible solution to Europe's debt crisis kept investors away from risky assets.

The Dow Jones industrial average <.DJI> slipped 25.77 points, or 0.23 percent, to 11,231.78 at the close. The Standard & Poor's 500 Index <.SPX> declined 3.12 points, or 0.27 percent, to 1,158.67. The Nasdaq Composite Index <.IXIC> shed 18.57 points, or 0.75 percent, to 2,441.51.

(Reporting by Atul Prakash; Editing by Jon Loades-Carter)