Stocks set to rebound

NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- U.S. stocks looked set to open with gains Monday, as investors reacted to surprise results from Verizon.

S&P 500, Nasdaq-100 and Dow Jones industrial average futures were slightly higher.

Futures measure current index values against their perceived future performance and offer an indication of how markets may open when trading begins.

Investors appeared ready to get back in the market after the recent retreat. U.S. stocks ended last week lower, breaking a two-week run. Stocks ended lower Friday as the market couldn't sustain early gains driven by upbeat results from Microsoft (MSFT, Fortune 500) and Amazon.com (AMZN, Fortune 500), and a big rise in existing home sales.

"Maybe the feeling is that it was a bit overdone on Friday," said Philip Isherwood, equities strategist at Evolution Securities. Given the lack of economic indicators on Monday, he said there was little reason to propel stocks upward, except as a reaction to the over zealous sell-off at the end of last week.

Earnings: This week 137 of the S&P 500 are due to report quarterly results. Verizon (VZ, Fortune 500) reported third-quarter results Monday, with a 10% gain in revenue to $27.27 billion compared to the year-ago quarter. But the company also reported a 30% decline in profit, to earnings of 41 cents per share, compared to the year-ago EPS of 59 cents.

Verizon's stock edged up 2% in pre-market trading.

This period has kicked off on a strong note, with 81% of firms topping Wall Street's forecasts so far.

Companies: Commercial real estate firm Capmark Financial filed for bankruptcy protection Sunday. The company was hit by declines in the sector and lack of financing.

Dutch bank ING (ING) said Monday it would spin off its insurance business and sell $11.3 billion of stock to repay government aid.

World markets: Stocks in Asia mostly finished higher. Japans' Nikkei added about 0.8%. Markets in Europe were also in an upbeat mood, posting modest gains in morning trading.

Money and oil: The dollar slumped versus major international currencies, including the yen, the euro and the British pound. The price of oil was practically unchanged, slipping 2 cents to $80.48 a barrel.