Oil retreat could help stocks
U.S. futures move off earlier lows on Israeli television report that country's attacks on Hezbollah militants could end within days.

NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- Stocks could open lower Monday on continued Middle East tensions, but an Israeli television report that the country could wrap up its attacks on Hezbollah militants within days had oil significantly lower and stock futures off of earlier lows..

At 7:57 a.m. ET, S&P and Nasdaq futures pointed to a slightly lower open, even with the drop in oil.

Six days of fighting between Hezbollah militants and Israel have added to the nervousness investors have been feeling over crises in Iran, Iraq and North Korea.

But Israel's Channel 10 quoted a senior military official as saying the offensive against Hezbollah will end within a few days, although a government spokeswoman later said Israel has no intention of initiating a halt as of yet. Oil prices also were jumped up and down on reports of Israeli troops entering into Lebanon.

Oil prices had been higher before the Israeli television report, but at 7:55 a.m. ET U.S. light crude retreated 96 cents to $76.07 a barrel in what appeared to be a volatile market. Brent was off $1.20 to $76.38.

Wachovia economist Phillip Neuhart said that while some economic reports and earnings reports could be felt in the market, it'll be the reports out of the Middle East and the effect those reports have on oil that will be key.

"Crude oil is really at the forefront of the collective market mind, and the volatility is likely to continue," he said.

Treasury prices were lower, with the 10-year note yield rising to 5.07 percent from the 5.06 percent level reached late Friday. The dollar was stronger against the euro and the yen.

Major indexes closed lower in Asia, although markets were closed for holidays in Japan and South Korea. Stocks also were lower in early trading in Europe.

In corporate news, Dow component Citigroup (Charts) started a busy week for earnings reports by reporting earnings of $1.05 a share, a penny below the forecast of analysts surveyed by earnings tracker First Call. Shares of Citigroup were narrowly lower in pre-market trading on Inet.

Shares of General Motors (Charts) were off 6 percent in Frankfurt trading after a weekend report from Business Week that Toyota (Charts) was looking at its own alliance offer to block a possible GM-Nissan-Renault tie-up, although it said Toyota wasn't interested in buying GM shares as part of a deal.

But the Detroit News quoted an unidentified Toyota executive as saying it is not looking for a way to block ongoing discussions between GM and Nissan-Renault.

Intel (Charts) is set to introduce a long-delayed chip Itanium, which has the equivalent of two electronic brains on a single piece of silicon, according to a Wall Street Journal report. The chip, code-named Montecito, is geared towards large computers.

Phelps Dodge (Charts) Corp. and Inco Ltd. (Charts) raised the cash portion of their friendly offer for Falconbridge (Charts), whose board said the three-way, $41 billion combination of mining companies is a superior alternative a competing offer from Swiss mining company Xstrata.

A Boeing (Charts) executive said Sunday some areas of its fast-selling 787 Dreamliners are behind schedule, but added the delay should not push back the new lightweight mid-sized plane's entry into service scheduled for 2008.

In addition, competitor Airbus said it willt unveil plans this week for a new range of mid-sized airliners as well as a freighter model as it tries to catch Boeing's recent lead in orders and deal with its own delays to its A380 superjumbo jet.

Monday will bring readings on manufacturing activity, as the New York Federal Reserve releases its Empire State Index at 8:30 a.m. ET. Economists forecast that index will fall to 21.8 from 29.0 in June.

At 9:15 a.m. ET the government will report on capacity utilization and industrial production.

Related: More on U.S. markets before the openTop of page

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Most stock quote data provided by BATS. Market indices are shown in real time, except for the DJIA, which is delayed by two minutes. All times are ET. Disclaimer. Morningstar: © 2018 Morningstar, Inc. All Rights Reserved. Factset: FactSet Research Systems Inc. 2018. All rights reserved. Chicago Mercantile Association: Certain market data is the property of Chicago Mercantile Exchange Inc. and its licensors. All rights reserved. Dow Jones: The Dow Jones branded indices are proprietary to and are calculated, distributed and marketed by DJI Opco, a subsidiary of S&P Dow Jones Indices LLC and have been licensed for use to S&P Opco, LLC and CNN. Standard & Poor's and S&P are registered trademarks of Standard & Poor's Financial Services LLC and Dow Jones is a registered trademark of Dow Jones Trademark Holdings LLC. All content of the Dow Jones branded indices © S&P Dow Jones Indices LLC 2018 and/or its affiliates.

Most stock quote data provided by BATS. Market indices are shown in real time, except for the DJIA, which is delayed by two minutes. All times are ET. Disclaimer. Morningstar: © 2018 Morningstar, Inc. All Rights Reserved. Factset: FactSet Research Systems Inc. 2018. All rights reserved. Chicago Mercantile Association: Certain market data is the property of Chicago Mercantile Exchange Inc. and its licensors. All rights reserved. Dow Jones: The Dow Jones branded indices are proprietary to and are calculated, distributed and marketed by DJI Opco, a subsidiary of S&P Dow Jones Indices LLC and have been licensed for use to S&P Opco, LLC and CNN. Standard & Poor's and S&P are registered trademarks of Standard & Poor's Financial Services LLC and Dow Jones is a registered trademark of Dow Jones Trademark Holdings LLC. All content of the Dow Jones branded indices © S&P Dow Jones Indices LLC 2018 and/or its affiliates.