Chrysler deal driving futures

NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- Stocks could get a lift from a rash of deal news, including the sale of an 80 percent stake in the Chrysler Group of DaimlerChrysler.

Stock futures were up in early trading, pointing to a higher open.

DaimlerChrysler (Charts) shares were up 6 percent in Frankfurt trading early Monday after the automaker announced it had agreed to sell a majority of its money-losing Chrysler unit to Cerberus Capital for $7.4 billion.

Meanwhile, wire services were reporting that members of the Ford family is considering selling part of their controlling stake in Ford Motor (Charts, Fortune 500) as well. Ford lost a record $12.7 billion in 2006.

And U.S. generic drugmaker Mylan Laboratories (Charts) agreed to pay $6.6 billion for the generic drug business of German drugmaker Merck KGaA. Shares of the German drugmaker were up 1.4 percent in Frankfurt on the news.

Saudi Arabian Oil Co., also known as Aramco, and Dow Chemical (Charts, Fortune 500) announced a long-awaited joint venture Saturday to develop a large-scale petrochemicals complex in eastern Saudi Arabia, an effort that the Wall Street Journal reports could eventually cost $22 billion.

A U.S. judge late Friday ordered Google (Charts, Fortune 500) to face a jury trial in a trademark infringement suit that could hit the Web search leader's main source of ad revenue, as a window blinds company is arguing that Google abuses trademarks by allowing rivals of a company to buy words, sometimes included in a name of a company, that consumers use to search the Web for information on that business.

Markets in Asia closed mostly higher, led by Japanese auto stocks. Major indexes in Europe were mixed in early trading, with stocks up in Frankfurt and London and lower in Paris.

Oil prices rose in early trading, as the Saudis kept OPEC supply limits in place. U.S. light crude gained 58 cents to $62.95 a barrel in electronic trading.

Treasury prices were lower, taking the yield on the 10-year note to 4.68 percent from the 4.67 percent level reached late Friday. The dollar was lower against the euro and but higher versus the yen.