Wall Street Set For A Lower Start Ahead Of Revised Auto Industry Bill

New York, NY (AHN) - Futures turn red as the congress prepares to decide the fate of the Detroit's Big Three by providing a bailout with some strings attached to prevent them from collapsing.

The stocks on Wall Street are likely to drop on Monday due to global negative sentiment on reports that Japan's gross domestic product shrank at an annual rate of 0.4 percent in the third quarter, following the euro-zone's economies amid global financial turmoil.

The progress at G20 summit over the weekend may also have some impact on today's trading.

At 7:15 a.m. EDT in New York, S&P futures were trading down by 5.00 points or 0.58 percent at 856.50 points, NASDAQ futures was moving down by 6.75 points or 0.58 percent at 1,148.75 points.

At the same time, the Dow was trading up at 77.00 points or 0.92 percent at 8,294.00points.

Oil futures moved towards $55-a-barrel mark on Monday as a light sweet crude barrel was recently trading lower by $1.31 a barrel to $55.73 a barrel in electronic trading.

On Friday, the contract had declined by $1.20 to $57.04 a barrel in overnight trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange on overall negative sentiment on oil demand.

Investors will look closely at the market reaction on automakers' fate on Capitol Hill as the Detroit's Big Three companies (General Motors Corp. (GM), Ford Motors Corp. (F) and Chrysler LLC) try to gain more fund from the government to save themselves from filing bankruptcy.

Shares of GM surged by 12 percent to $3.36 in Frankfurt trading on Monday on reports that the Detriot, Michigan-based automaker is planning to raise 22.4 billion yen ($230 million) by selling its stake in Suzuki Motor.

Suzuki Motor Corp. confirmed Monday that General Motors will sell its entire 3 percent stake in the Japanese automaker to raise captial amid deteriotating cash reserves.

General Motors alone would cost the government as much as $200 billion and millions of jobs in the U.S. , if it collapses, leading to a devastating impact on the country's economy.

In economic reports, the NY Empire State index, a regional manufacturing report, is expected to be released for the month of November by the Federal Reserve Bank of New York at 8:30 a.m. ET on Monday.

In currency trading, the Japanese yen changed hands at 97.02 yen per U.S. dollar in Asia on Monday, after it closed at 96.81 yen late Friday in New York.