U.S. stock-index futures opened with modest gains Sunday evening as investors assessed a historic deal to rescue troubled Swiss lender Credit Suisse as authorities scrambled to head off a deeper loss of confidence in the global banking system. Rival bank UBS Group UBS agreed to buy Credit Suisse CSCH:CSGN for more than $3 billion in a deal shepherded by Swiss regulators. Also Sunday, the Federal Reserve and five other major central banks announced they were taking steps to ensure that U.S. dollars remained readily accessible throughout the global financial system in response. Futures on the Dow Jones Industrial Average YM00 rose 50 points, or 0.2%, while futures on the S&P 500 ES00 and Nasdaq-100 NQ00 were up 0.2%. U.S. stocks ended lower Friday amid persisting banking sector fears, with the Dow DJIA booking back-to-back weekly losses. The S&P 500 SPX rose 1.4% last week, while the technology-heavy Nasdaq Composite COMP climbed 4.4% in its biggest weekly percentage gain since January, according to Dow Jones Market Data.
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