Data on personal income, PCE inflation gauge due at 8:30 a.m. Eastern time By Polya Lesova, MarketWatch FRANKFURT (MarketWatch) -- U.S. stock-index futures traded marginally lower on Monday, as traders questioned whether central banks will be able to prop up the global economy after the Bank of Japan decided to further ease monetary policy. After posting small gains earlier in the session, U.S. stock futures turned slightly lower. S&P 500 futures fell 1.5 points to 1,062.20 and Nasdaq 100 futures dropped 2.5 points to 1,786.70. Futures on the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 24 points to 10,117. The Dow (DJIA 10,151, +164.84, +1.65%) rallied 1.7% on Friday but ended last week with a loss of 0.6%, its third consecutive weekly decline. Investors were heartened on Friday to hear Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke assert that the central bank will do what it takes to prop up the economic recovery, which has shown signs of slowing in recent weeks. Also, second-quarter U.S. gross-domestic-product data was better than analysts expected. "Overall, what's driving markets today is Bernanke's speech last Friday, where he explained in more detail what they would do if the economy continues to deteriorate," said Mads Koefoed, macro strategist at Saxo Bank in Copenhagen. "And then the Bank of Japan decided to help him out by issuing a statement," he said. Those two events had initially boosted appetite for assets perceived as risky such as stocks, according to Koefoed. At an unscheduled meeting on Monday, the Bank of Japan extended its emergency-lending program in an effort to stem the rise of the yen and support the sluggish economic recovery. In Tokyo, the Nikkei Stock Average ended up 1.8%, paring some of its intraday gains. The Japanese yen, however, gained on the news, with the U.S. dollar falling 0.7% to 84.63 yen. See more on the yen. The dollar index (DXY 82.90, -0.02, -0.02%) , which tracks the performance of the greenback against a basket of other major currencies, was little changed at 82.905. On the economic front, data on personal income and the PCE inflation gauge for July will be released at 8:30 a.m. Eastern time. Later in the session, James Bullard, president of the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis, will give introductory remarks at a discussion on financial regulatory reform. In Europe, stock markets were mixed, with the Stoxx Europe 600 index (ST:SXXP 251.19, -0.05, -0.02%) little changed in early afternoon trading. U.K. markets are closed for a holiday. Sanofi-Aventis discloses bid In France, shares of Sanofi-Aventis S.A. (SNY 29.12, +0.20, +0.69%) (FR:SAN 45.79, +0.52, +1.14%) gained 0.8% after the pharmaceutical giant publicly disclosed its offer to buy U.S. biotechnology firm Genzyme Corp. (GENZ 70.25, +2.63, +3.89%) for $69 a share, or $18.5 billion. "Although the letter states that Sanofi is committed to a transaction with Genzyme, we do not believe management would overpay," Bank of America Merrill Lynch said in a note to clients. Sanofi-Aventis would walk away from the deal unless it can generate sufficient shareholder returns, the broker added. Bank of America Merrill Lynch reiterated its buy rating on Sanofi-Aventis, saying it's one of the most attractively valued in the European pharmaceutical sector. Shares of Genzyme gained 3.9% in premarket trading in the U.S. Also in the deal space, German chip maker Infineon Technologies AG (IFNNY 5.94, +0.05, +0.85%) (DE:IFX 4.50, -0.14, -3.06%) agreed to sell its wireless-solutions unit to Intel Corp. (INTC 18.37, +0.19, +1.05%) for about $1.4 billion. Infineon shares fell 2.3% in Frankfurt. Intel on Friday cut its sales forecast, citing a weaker-than-expected personal-computer market. Read more on Intel's guidance. "What disturbs us quite a bit is that nobody is paying attention to Intel, which on Friday lowered revenue guidance," said Koefoed of Saxo Bank. "That is quite a disturbing sign in our view and we cannot understand why it's not getting more attention." In the commodity markets, October crude-oil futures fell 37 cents to $74.80 a barrel in electronic trading on Globex.

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