Bleak Monday for stocks

NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- U.S. stocks appeared poised to follow global markets lower Monday as the dollar continued its recent slide and investors worldwide remained jittery following last week's brutal sell off on Wall Street.

Stocks in Asia tumbled and European markets opened sharply lower, after the dollar hit yet another record low against the euro and continued its slide versus the yen.

The G7, the finance ministers from the world's seven largest economies, concluded a meeting in Washington late Friday without expressing any concern over a strengthening euro or weakening dollar.

That was seen as giving the green light for further selling of the American currency. That slide in the dollar in turn hit the shares of many European and Asian exporters, whose goods are now more expensive in the key U.S. market, while also working to make the dollar-denominated shares of major U.S. companies less attractive to overseas investors.

U.S. markets start the week after a brutal sell-off Friday, which led to thethird largest point loss ever in the Dow Jones industrial average. Disappointing earnings and new concerns about the impact of the credit market problems on the banking sector fed the decline.

The statement out of the G7 meeting warned that while the functioning of global financial markets was improving somewhat, "uneven conditions are likely to persist for some time and will require close monitoring."

Art Hogan, chief market analyst at Jefferies & Co., said Friday sell-off and the weakness has investors nervous ahead of a busy week for earnings reports.

"We've broadened out our fear of earnings deceleration into the industrial sector and that led to the sell-off," he said. "Then we get in this morning and see that Europe and Asia have followed suit.

Merck (Charts, Fortune 500) gave a positive start to the the busy week for corporate earnings when it reported earnings per share excluding special items rose 47 percent to 75 cents, easily topping forecasts of 69 cents. It also raised its full-year EPS guidance, with the low end of its new range topping the consensus forecast.

Shares of Merck, a Dow component, shot up 1.3 percent in pre-market trading immediately after the report.

Also due to report results Monday are American Express (Charts, Fortune 500), another Dow component, as well as tech bellwether Apple Computer (Charts, Fortune 500). Both are scheduled to report after the market close.

Oil prices eased after hitting record levels last week. The front-month contract was trading below $88 a barrel in Asian trading after breaking through the key $90 a barrel level Friday.

Among stocks to watch, General Motors (Charts, Fortune 500) edged back ahead of Japanese rival Toyota Motor (Charts) in 2007 global sales. Toyota sold 7.05 million vehicles in the first nine months of the year, the Japanese automaker reported early Monday, versus GM's global sales of 7.06 million reported last week.

The Wall Street Journal reported that brokerage Bear Stearns (Charts, Fortune 500) is near an agreement with Chinese investment bank Citic Securities that would involve each company taking a $1 billion stake in the other.