Madoff & M&A Monday

Good morning. We're set for a higher open at the start of this four-day trading week. News and data flow are on the slow side again, but there are a few noteworthy items to review including a plethora of merger & acquisition announcements.

First off, we have M&A activity between consulting firms Towers Perrin Forster & Crosby and Watson Wyatt Worldwide, Enterprise and Teppco have announced a merger, Novartis is reportedly in talks to buy parts of Elan, Anglo American is in talks to sell a major investment stake to Aluminum Corp. of China, and Vodafone is considering a bid to buy T-Mobile UK.

In other news, five more banks were seized by regulators, General Electric's CEO Immelt says cyclical downturn is now behind us, Obama's aid Romer is upbeat on US economy, late Friday the House passed the Climate & Energy bill, and the Honduran President is ousted in coup.

Premarket gainers: DCGN, CYTR, EVTC, FTWR, EXP, SIRI, CFW, MNI, LEE, FULT, BPHX, MDRX, CAEI, TRW, FEED, KIRK, CSIQ, SPPI, SLM, FRE, FNSR, PCAR, DFS, JASO, CLR, SNY, ELN, & SNP.

Premarket losers: RAE, HTM, HMPR, BIIB, DPTR, UEC, LEA, FCH, ARL, TLM, CTIC, SIMG, OPEN, SYUT, ALY, CRME, KOL, CHBT, SYMX, FNLC, & ZEP.

While there will be plenty of economic data to consider later this week, for today there's nothing on the calendar. Instead, expect the focus of the day to be on this morning's M&A activity, Madoff's sentencing and preparing for Thursday's jobs report.

Let's make it a great week!