By Abhiram Nandakumar
REUTERS - U.S. stock indexes were set to open lower on Monday after last week's rally in oil prices lost steam.
Crude prices resumed their slide, after a strong two-day run, as a record output from Iraq flooded a heavily oversupplied market. [O/R]
U.S. stocks logged their first week of gains in the year last week, with the three indexes closing up 2 percent on Friday.
All eyes will be on the U.S. Federal Reserve's next move on interest rates when the Federal Open Market Committee meets on Jan. 26-27.
Investors, already rattled by the volatile start to the year and a steep fall in oil prices, are also awaiting U.S. GDP data on Friday for a reading on the health of the economy.
"So right now, we're in wait-and-see mode as the market pauses to digest last week's very strong gains," said Adam Sarhan, chief executive of Sarhan Capital in New York.
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Corporate results are not likely to improve sentiment, with quarterly profits at S&P 500 companies expected to fall 4.3 percent, according to Thomson Reuters data. Excluding energy companies, earnings are estimated to grow by 1.7 percent.
At 8:28 a.m. ET (1328 GMT), Dow e-minis were down 50 points, or 0.31 percent, with 38,976 contracts changing hands.S&P 500 e-minis were down 6.5 points, or 0.34 percent, with 237,257 contracts traded. Nasdaq 100 e-minis were down 13.5 points, or 0.32 percent, on volume of 46,247 contracts.
Shares of McDonald's were up 3 percent at $121.95 premarket after the Dow component reported better-than-expected same-store sales.
Tyco International jumped 11 percent to $33.95 after Johnson Controls said it would merge with the Irish fire protection and security systems maker. Johnson Controls was down half a percent.
Twitter was down 4.9 percent at $16.99 after Chief Executive Jack Dorsey said four senior executives would leave the social media company.
Caterpillar was down 3.7 percent at $58.71 after Goldman Sachs cut its rating on the stock to "sell".
Halliburton was down 1.6 percent at $29.70 after the oilfield services company reported a 42 percent fall in revenue, while D.R. Horton was up 1 percent at $28, after its profit beat estimates.
(Reporting by Abhiram Nandakumar in Bengaluru; Editing by Anil D'Silva)