U.S. Stock Futures Point to Flat Open

U.S. stocks headed for a largely flat open Monday as investors awaited a report on home sales and looked to close a volatile and difficult year.

Investors found some reason to hope that Wall Street would in 2008 be able to put to rest some of its financial troubles. The U.K.'s Observer newspaper reported that Merrill Lynch & Co. was in talks over the weekend to line up capital from investors in China and the Middle East in exchange for portions of the Wall Street firm.

Merrill, like many other financial houses, has been troubled by misplaced bets on mortgages and is now holding assets it finds difficult to unload in a nervous credit market. Read more