* Gloomy economic picture fuels risk aversion
* Financials, energy shares fall before the bell
* For up-to-the-minute market news, please click on
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(Updates with retailers outlook, energy and financial shares,
data schedule, prices)
By Ellis Mnyandu
NEW YORK, Dec 1 (Reuters) - U.S. stock index futures fell
on Monday as concerns about the deepening world economic slump
reduced the appetite for risk and investors fretted about the
start of what they fear will be a bleak holiday buying season.
With the start of the new month, U.S. benchmark indexes
could open 2 percent or more lower, a drop that will extend a
global equity rout that hurt stocks in Asia and sent European
indexes sliding nearly 3 percent.
Stocks had their best weekly showing in about 30 years last
week, but November was one of the worst months since 1987.
Grim manufacturing figures from China, the world's fourth
largest economy, and from Europe offered yet more evidence of
mounting deterioration in the world's economy.
Shares of financial companies fell before the bell, with
Citigroup <C.N> down 5 percent. A drop in oil prices weighed on
energy shares, sending Exxon Mobil <XOM.N> 3 percent lower.
Yields on benchmark 10-year Treasuries sagged to fresh
five-decade lows as investors scurried toward the relative
safety of government debt.
"We still have a lot of things to be concerned about," said
Arthur Hogan, chief market analyst at Jefferies & Co in
Boston.
"We have a week that's full of economic data, and on top of
that everybody is going to be trying to slice and dice the
consumer and how they are faring."
S&P 500 futures <SPc1> were 24.10 points lower 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 <DJc1>
slid 193 points, and Nasdaq 100 <NDc1> tumbled 29 points.
Consumers made repeat trips to U.S. stores and spent more
on bargains this holiday weekend, but analysts said the early
rush was unlikely to save retailers from a bleak sales season.
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Investors would get a peak into how individual companies
are faring when major U.S. retailers post monthly sales figures
on Thursday, a day before the government's release of the
November unemployment report, including non-farm payrolls.
Shares of financial services companies were likely to be
among the top drags after influential bank analyst Meredith
Whitney of Oppenheimer & Co said the U.S. credit-card industry
may cut $2 trillion in credit lines over the next 18 months due
to caution about risk and regulatory changes, leading to sharp
contraction in consumer spending.
Shares of Citigroup were down 5 percent at $7.90, while
those of Bank of America <BAC.N> declined 1.5 percent to $16.
Goldman Sachs <GS.N> dropped nearly 3 percent to $76.85.
Exxon Mobil shares fell 3.7 percent to $77.15 before the
bell as oil prices fell on concerns a faltering global economy
will hurt energy demand. U.S. front-month crude <CLc1> fell 5.1
percent to $51.59 a barrel.
China's manufacturing industry slumped in November as new
orders, especially from abroad, tumbled in the face of
deepening economic gloom and financial uncertainty. A report on
November U.S. manufacturing from the Institute for Supply
Management is due at 10 a.m. (1500 GMT)
(Editing by Kenneth Barry)
