Dodgy outlook for Wall Street

NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- Stocks were looking for direction early Monday, despite problems for drugmaker Pfizer which sent the shares of that Dow component sharply lower in European trading.

Stock futures were slightly lower, although a comparison to fair value, which predicts the direction of stocks at the open, showed stocks poised to open slightly higher, even as shares of Pfizer (Charts) fell 11 percent in Frankfurt.

Pfizer, the world's largest drugmaker, halted development on Saturday of its top experimental medicine, the cholesterol drug torcetrapib, due to safety concerns. The drug was seen as a key for Pfizer sales once its current cholesterol treatment Lipitor, the best selling drug in the world, loses U.S. patent protection in 2011.

In other corporate news, Bank of New York (Charts) agreed to be purchased by Mellon Financial (Charts) in a stock deal being called a merger by the two banks that will pay about 6.5 percent premium for Bank of New York shares, worth about a $28.4 billion. The combination will create the largest securities servicing and asset management firm globally, according to the companies' release.

Mack-Cali Realty (Charts) pulled out of its partnership with Carl Icahn and Harry Macklowe in their bid to buy office building owner Reckson Associates Realty (Charts). The partnership had bid $49 per share, or about $4.6 billion in cash, for the company, which had already approved a stock-and-cash takeover offer from New York office owner SL Green Realty (Charts).

Oil prices were lower, even as anti-American socialist Hugo Chavez claimed victory in the Venezuelan presidential election. His re-election to run the oil-rich nation had been widely expected.

More market news and futures ahead of U.S. open