U.S. stock futures drop before ISM report; Northrop rises - MarketWatch

U.S. stock futures drop before ISM report; Northrop rises - MarketWatch

After the dollar move, the Nikkei 225 stumbled 4.5% in Tokyo. Other international stock markets also were weaker, with the FTSE 100 down 1.2% in London.

Yields on 10-year Treasury bonds rose to 3.54% after Friday's tumble. Oil futures fell 62 cents to $101.22 a barrel while gold futures climbed $7 to $982 an ounce.

Of companies in the spotlight, Northrop Grumman (NOC:

NOC

surged 7% in Frankfurt after it and partner EADS (FR:005730: news, chart, profile) won a contract worth over $35 billion from the Pentagon for air tankers. Shares of Boeing (BA:

BA

the favorite to win the contract, fell 5%.

EADS, the owner of Airbus, rose over 7% in Paris.

Berkshire Hathaway (BRKB:

BRKB

(BRKA:

BRKA

said its fourth-quarter net income fell 18% to $2.95 billion, or $1,904 per class A share, from $3.58 billion, or $2,323 per class A share, a year earlier. The insurance-focused conglomerate reported operating earnings, which exclude realized gains and losses from investments and derivatives, of $2.35 billion, or $1,518 per class A share.

United Technologies (UTX:

UTX

offered $2.63 billion, or $40 a share, for Diebold (DBD:

DBD

, the maker of automatic teller machines and voting terminals.

HSBC Holdings (HBC:

HBC

managed to report a 21% profit rise for 2007, even as its earnings from North America were virtually wiped out by an ill-fated push into the subprime-mortgage market. On Monday it said total loan-impairment charges for the group jumped 63% to $17.24 billion, largely due to that U.S. lending.

Russia's state-held Gazprom began reducing gas supplies to Ukraine - the intermediary for European gas distribution - as Vladimir Putin ally Dmitry Medvedev won the Russian presidency.

Xstrata said its takeover talks with Vale (RIO:

RIO

were ongoing after reporting that its annual profit more than tripled.