Wall Street shares are seen starting in the red as a new and busy looking week kicks off.
As flagged on Friday, the iconic US retail store Sears Holdings Corp (NASDAQ:SHLD) is in big trouble.
Sears, a household name in the US, 125 years old, mentioned in a Billy Joel song, and known to generations, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in the early hours of Monday morning.
The company, which also owns discount retailer Kmart and has 68,000 employees, has fallen into disrepair and is wracked with debt problems.
Sears is set to close another 142 stores by around the end of 2018, on top of a recently announced round of 46 store closures, as part of the bankruptcy package.
Shares in Sears are down an eye-watering 33% before the bell.
Also in pre-market trade Monday, Harris Corp (NYSE: HRS) shares nudged up 0.42% to $154.87, while L3 Technologies Inc (NYSE:LLL) ticked up nearly 6% to $207.28.
It comes after the latest example of consolidation in the US government contracting industry, as the pair revealed an all share 'merger of equals' yesterday (Sunday).
The tie-up could create the sixth-largest aerospace and defense prime contractor, behind Lockheed Martin Corp. (NYSE: LMT), Boeing Co. (NYSE: BA), Raytheon Co. (NYSE: RTN), Northrop Grumman Corp. (NYSE: NOC) and General Dynamics Corp. (NYSE: GD).
The new entity would be a military communications and defense electronics company enjoying revenue of around $16bn and a $34 billion market cap.
After some big names started the ball rolling on Friday, more banks are due to report earnings today.
Shares in Bank of America Corp (NYSE:BAC) saw shares nudge up 0.49% in pre-market to $28.60 as it revealed that its earnings had jumped 43% as consumer credit had improved.
The group reported earnings per share (EPS) of $0.66 for its third quarter on Monday, against $0.62, which was the consensus analyst figure.
BAC is the second largest in the USA by assets. The third-quarter revenue came in at $22.777bn, versus $21.839 billion a year ago. Analysts had expected $22.699 billion.