A recovery, of sorts, for Wall Street

LONDON (CNNMoney.com) -- Stocks looked set for a modest recovery Monday after sinking the past session on earnings woes.

At 4:50 a.m. ET, futures were mixed, with a comparison to fair value pointing to a positive open for Wall Street.

Stocks sank Friday, with the Dow, a blue-chip barometer that tracks 30 large companies, logging a nearly 150-point loss.

Traders will look to fresh readings on the housing sector and economic growth for direction this week. The ongoing slump in housing, as well as weak corporate earnings, sparked selling on Friday.

Major Asian markets finished the session lower, while European stocks got off to a mixed start.

In major corporate news, British bank Barclays (Charts) sweetened its takeover offer for ABN Amro (Charts) to $93 billion, although the new offer still falls short of the bid from a rival group led by Royal bank of Scotland.

Scholastic (Charts), the U.S. publisher of the Harry Potter books, said the final installment of the seven-book series sold a record 8.3 million copies in its first 24 hours of sale, setting a new record.