Stock index futures dipped in light volume on Monday as traders balanced upbeat data from Germany and China with angst ahead of Federal Reserve speakers after last week's hawkish comments from a top Fed official.
Germany's private sector grew in September at its fastest rate since January and a survey showed Chinese manufacturing activity accelerated to a six-month high in September, giving equities relative support. The U.S. flash Markit Manufacturing PMI for September is due at 8:58 a.m.
Four Fed officials will be on the speakers' circuit Monday, including influential New York Fed President William Dudley, who will speak on Monday at 9:30 a.m. (1330 GMT). Investors will be paying close attention after St. Louis Fed chief James Bullard said Friday the Fed could still decide to start trimming its stimulus in October if inflation and unemployment data warrant it.
"We had some good news out of China and Europe and the elections in Germany are favorable for the euro zone, but focus remains on the Fed," said Peter Cardillo,
"Fed speakers are going to keep this market on edge, will continue to keep it guessing when they will begin to taper."
Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta President Dennis Lockhart will speak at 9:20 a.m. (1320 GMT) and Fed Bank of Dallas President Richard Fisher will speak in San Antonio, Texas, at 1:30 p.m. New York time (1730 GMT).
The S&P 500 and Dow industrials hit record highs last week after the Fed ignored investor expectations by postponing the start of the wind down of its massive monetary stimulus, saying it wanted to wait for more evidence of solid economic growth.
S&P 500 futures fell 3 points and were below fair value, a formula that evaluates pricing by taking into account interest rates, dividends and time to expiration on the contract. Dow Jones industrial average futures fell 17 points, and Nasdaq 100 futures fell 4 points.
The prospect of a government shutdown or even a default in the following weeks could keep markets jittery even as Wall Street analysts sense the current drama is likely to feature more bluster than bravado.
The widely followed Dow Jones industrial average [Dear Guest/Member you can't see link before click here to register] will open Monday with three new components as Goldman Sachs (GS.N), Visa (V.N) and Nike (NKE.N) replace Bank of America (BAC.N), Hewlett-Packard (HPQ.N) and Alcoa (AA.N).
On the S&P 500, Vertex Pharmaceuticals (VRTX.O) and Ametek (AME.N) will replace Advanced Micro Devices (AMD.N) and SAIC Inc (SAI.N).
U.S.-traded shares of BlackBerry (BBRY.O) fell 5.8 percent in premarket trading after the Canadian smartphone maker announced Friday a change in focus away from the consumer in favor of businesses and governments. The move has fueled fears about BlackBerry's long-term viability.
German shares were lower though they remained near last week's record high a day after Chancellor Angela Merkel won a landslide victory in the general election. Her conservatives may need leftist rivals to form a coalition government.