U.S. Stocks Set to Tick Higher

Stocks were set to climb at the open Monday as a battered Wall Street attempted a modicum of recovery from the giant selloff in the previous session.

S&P 500 futures were up 4 points to 1363 and were more than 2 points above fair value. Futures on the Nasdaq 100 bumped up 7 points to 1996 and were nearly 5 points ahead of fair value.

Last time out, stocks were caught in a landslide as oil prices rampaged higher by more than $10 a barrel to a new record and the Labor Department said the unemployment rate jumped last month.

At the end of the day, the Dow Jones Industrial Average had plummeted 395 points to 12,210, and the S&P 500 sank 43 points to 1361. The Nasdaq Composite lost 75 points to 2475.

Crude oil futures remained at extraordinarily high levels in the new session, but saw a bit of profit-taking amid news that Saudi Arabian oil minister Ali al-Naimi has called Friday's giant gains "unjustified," according to the Saudi Press Agency. Recently, oil was off $1.94 to $136.60 a barrel.

Further, the nationwide average for gas prices at the pump hit the $4 milestone on Sunday, according to AAA, and recently they were at yet another all-time high of $4.023 a gallon.

Gold futures were adding $6.60 to $905.60 an ounce. The U.S. dollar lost 0.2% against the euro to $1.5797 and 0.5% to the yen at 105.58.

Among companies, Lehman Brothers (LEH Quote) announced plans to raise $6 billion through an offering for common and preferred stock, and said it expects to post a fiscal second-quarter loss of $2.8 billion, or $5.14 a share. Word of a cash-raising and a big loss has been circulating since last week. Shares were sliding in the premarket.