Stocks set to rally on rescue plan
Government plan to bolster mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac lifts futures; dollar gains.
NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- Stock futures climbed Monday morning, lifted by a government plan to bolster ailing mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.
At 7:09 a.m. ET, Nasdaq and S&P futures were higher, with a comparison to fair value suggesting opening gains for Wall Street.
Stocks tumbled last week on fears U.S. government-sponsored mortgage firms Fannie Mae (FNM, Fortune 500) and Freddie Mac (FRE, Fortune 500) would collapse, but investors appeared soothed by a U.S. plan to shore up the firms.
Mortgage rescue plan On Sunday, Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson and Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke outlined a plan to prop up the two mortgage giants.
The plan would give Fannie and Freddie, which own or back about $5 trillion worth of home mortgages, a bigger line of credit with the Treasury Department. The firms will also be able to tap the Federal Reserve Bank of New York for funds.
Shares of the two mortgage-lending giants each jumped about 31% in premarket trading Monday on news of the government's assistance.
Beer deal Anheuser-Busch (BUD, Fortune 500), maker of Budweiser, agreed to a sweetened $52 billion takeover offer from Belgian brewer InBev. The deal will create the world's largest brewer.
Energy Oil prices fell as the dollar strengthened on the U.S. mortgage rescue plan. Crude prices, which hit a trading record of $147.27 on Friday, fell $1.54 to $143.54 in electronic trading Monday, while average prices for gasoline and diesel fuel at the pump hit new levels.
Industry General Electric Co. (GE, Fortune 500) announced that it would develop a new line of fuel efficient jet engines to compete with United Technologies Corp.'s (UTX, Fortune 500) Pratt & Whitney.
Microsoft-Yahoo Over the weekend, Yahoo, Inc. (YHOO, Fortune 500) rebuffed an attempt by Microsoft and activist investor Carl Icahn to buy the company's Internet search business.
Technology Microsoft Corp. formally announced late Friday that it was cutting the price on the lower-end model of its XBox 360 gaming console and introducing a new mid-range model with a 60GB hard drive.
It is also rumored that Microsoft (MSFT, Fortune 500) could announce a deal with video rental company Netflix, Inc. (NFLX) at the E3 video game industry conference in Los Angeles on Monday that would allow streaming movies and TV shows from Netflix to be played through the Xbox 360.
Other markets. In global trade, Asian markets ended lower. European markets climbed in morning trading.
The dollar gained against the euro in early European trading. 
