Stock index futures signal weaker Wall Street open

LONDON -

Stock index futures pointed to a weaker open on Wall Street on Monday, with futures for the S&P 500, the Dow Jones and the Nasdaq 100 down by between 0.6 and 1.1 percent, mirroring losses in Europe and Asia.

The announcement at the weekend that tiny Cyprus would impose a tax on bank accounts as part of a 10 billion euro ($13 billion) bailout rattled markets globally as it broke with previous European practice that depositors' savings were sacrosanct.

National Association of Home Builders/Wells Fargo issues March housing market index at 1400 GMT. Economists in a Reuters survey expect a reading of 47, versus 46 in February.

Europe's Airbus has landed a record order potentially worth $20 billion at list prices from Indonesia's Lion Air, sources familiar with the matter said on Sunday, smashing rival Boeing's grip on one of the world's fastest-growing airlines.

To get its 787 Dreamliner flying again, Boeing Co is testing the plane's volatile battery system to a rigorous standard that the company itself helped develop - but that it never used on the jet.

Highbridge Capital Management, a hedge fund manager owned by JPMorgan Chase & Co , has raised a $5 billion mezzanine debt fund, a spokesman said on Sunday, the latest alternative asset firm seeking to seize on corporate credit opportunities.

Futures regulators are looking into whether high-speed traders indulged in "wash trading," a strategy in which they improperly buy and sell futures contracts without taking a position in the market, the Wall Street Journal reported, citing people familiar with the probes.

Directories publishers Dex One Corp and SuperMedia Inc have filed for bankruptcy after failing to win the full support of senior secured lenders for a change to a credit agreement that was needed to complete their planned merger.

Pan-European FTSEurofirst 300 index <.FTEU3> and Japan's Nikkei Average <.N225> fell 0.9 percent and 2.7 percent respectively on Monday, with markets rattled by Cyprus' radical bailout plan to tax depositors.

Stocks slipped on Friday, ending the Dow Jones industrial average's longest winning streak since 1996 as investors paused just below the S&P 500's record high.

The Dow Jones industrial average <.DJI> slipped 25.03 points, or 0.17 percent, to 14,514.11 at the close. The Standard & Poor's 500 Index <.SPX> shed 2.53 points, or 0.16 percent, to 1,560.70. The Nasdaq Composite Index <.IXIC> dropped 9.86 points, or 0.30 percent, to end at 3,249.07.

(Reporting by Atul Prakash; Editing by Susan Fenton)