Stocks set for muted start

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NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- U.S. stock futures were little changed Monday after the previous session's rally as investors waited to see how Microsoft efforts to buy Yahoo develop and looked ahead to a batch of economic reports due out this week.

About three hours before the market open, Nasdaq and S&P futures were both slightly lower, with a comparison to fair value indicating a flat open for Wall Street.

Stocks jumped Friday, lifted by Microsoft's (MSFT, Fortune 500) $45 billion takeover bid for Yahoo (YHOO, Fortune 500). Over the weekend Yahoo and Microsoft rival Google (GOOG, Fortune 500) posted a statement critical of the deal, saying it's a threat to the openness and innovation of the Internet.

The Wall Street Journal reported Monday that Google CEO Eric Schmidt also called Yahoo CEO Jerry Yang to offer his company's help in any effort to thwart the Microsoft bid.

In a filing early Monday, Yahoo released an e-mail that Yang sent out to employees late Friday that said "absolutely no decisions have been made" on the Microsoft offer.

Shares of Microsoft, which fell nearly 7% Friday following the offer, were 1.2% higher in early Frankfurt trading. Yahoo shares were up 1% there, and Google shares were narrowly lower.

While the potential merger gave stocks a lift Friday, investors remain worried about a recession, and this week brings a slew of reports, including readings on productivity, home sales and wholesale inventories.

Monday kicks off with the Commerce Department releasing a report on December factory orders at 10 a.m. ET. Economists surveyed by Briefing.com are expecting a 2% rise in orders, versus the 1.5% gain in November.

In corporate news, drugmaker Pfizer (PFE, Fortune 500) suffered a setback late Friday when the Food and Drug Administration announced it had received reports of 37 suicides and more than 400 reports of suicidal behavior in connection with its anti-smoking drug Chantix. The regulators added that a tie between the drug and psychiatric problems is "increasingly likely."

In the big-dollar world of Super Bowl advertising, Anheuser-Busch's (BUD, Fortune 500) spot for its Budweiser brand that featured one of the brewer's trademark Clydesdales being "trained" by a Dalmatian came in as the most popular in online polling on a couple of sites after the game. An ad for the hybrid version of General Motor's (GM, Fortune 500) GMC Yukon ranked near the bottom on the USA Today Ad Meter polling, as did a spot for Under Armour (UA).

Advertisers paid about $2.7 million for a 30-second spot during the game, which was a 17-14 upset win by the New York Giants that ended the New England Patriots' hopes of a perfect season.

In global trade, Asian stocks rallied. European stocks also jumped in morning trading.