NEW YORK (CNN/Money) - U.S. stocks look set for a quiet start to the New Year's Eve trading day Monday as investors hope to close the lid on 2001 with some stock gains as they consider Oracle's latest job cuts announcement.
At 8:45 a.m. ET, the Nasdaq-100 and the Standard & Poor's 500 futures pointed to a flat start for the major indexes. All the major equity markets are open for a full session.
Oracle (ORCL: Research, Estimates) announced late Friday that it will cut as many as 840 jobs from its global workforce of 42,000 as part of a realignment of the company's services business. The move rounds out a year of job cutting throughout American businesses in numbers that will be reflected in the December employment report due Friday.
Oracle shares gained 23 cents to $14.29 in before-hours trading Monday.
The Dow Jones industrial average begins the final day of 2001 at 10,136.99, up 5.68 Friday. The Nasdaq composite index is at 1,987.26 after a nearly 11-point gain, while the Standard & Poor's 500 starts at 1,161.02 following an almost 4-point rise. But this December's rally is too little, too late to avoid a second consecutive year of losses for the major indexes.
There were mixed results for the Asian markets that were open Monday; Tokyo was closed. London's FTSE-100 finished lower in a shortened session, with other European markets closed.
Wall Street will also be following the latest development in Argentina, where the country's third president took office in just 10 days. The country was thrown into political and economic chaos as it faces its worst economic crisis in recent years.
Treasury prices dipped in early trading Monday, with the yield on the 10-year note rising to 5.12 percent from 5.08 percent late Friday. The dollar slipped against the euro on the eve of the single currency's debut throughout Europe; it also slipped versus the yen. Brent oil futures fell 40 cents to $19.90 a barrel in London.
ImClone Systems (IMCL: Research, Estimates) said Friday it expects the launch of its experimental colon cancer treatment, Erbitux, to be delayed until at least the third quarter of 2002 following questions by U.S. regulators over the drug's clinical data. The drug was to be co-marketed by Bristol-Myers Squibb (BMY: Research, Estimates). Shares of ImClone tumbled $9.75 to $45.50 in before-hours trading Monday, while Bristol-Myers lost 80 cents to $51.
Auto parts manufacturer Tower Automotive (TWR: Research, Estimates) said Friday it will take a $289 million restructuring charge in the fourth quarter and cut 215 jobs in the United States and Canada next year. Shares of Tower Automotive lost 5 cents to $9.40 Friday. 
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