Stock futures are positive right now. It seemed earlier stocks might take a breather today, but now it seems stocks are poised for another positive day to begin a week full of economic news and a Federal Reserve meeting. Merger news helped lift stocks.

Last week the S&P 500 rose 0.7% and moved above the 1,500 level for the first time in over six years. The S&P 500 all-time closing high is 1,527.46. Could the S&P soon join the Dow Jones Industrial Average posting record closings? Meanwhile the Dow, which rose 23 of the last 26 sessions and posted 19 record closings since the beginning of the year, climbed 1% last week. The Nasdaq Composite added 0.6%. Earnings and M&A activity were the main drivers.

This week all eyes will be focusing on the Federal Reserve meeting. While almost everyone expects the Fed to keep rates unchanged on Wednesday, some begin to worry it will not handle the economic growth slowdown very well.

At 3:00 p.m. today, the Fed will report March consumer credit. The market is expecting a reading of $4.5 billion, up from $2.9 billion in February.

Overseas, the European Central Bank and the Bank of England will also decide on interest rates this week. The ECB is expected to keep it unchanged on Wednesday as it predicts its economy and the euro will heat up this year and next. A quarter point rate hike is expected by the Banks of England on Thursday.
European stocks are mostly flat now, but Asian stocks posted gains with the Nikkei 225 rising 1.6% today.

Merger news

• Alcoa Inc. (NYSE: AA) plans to to acquire Alcan Inc. (NYSE: AL) with a cash and stock offer valued at $33 billion. This will amount to $58.60 in cash and 0.4108 of a share of Aloca stock for each Alcan share. That values Alcan at $73.25, a 20% premium to the closing price on May 4. AA shares are down nearly 2.7% in pre-market trading at 7:30 a.m.. AL shares up almost 25%. Update 9:10: AA shares are up over 4.5% in pre-market.
• BAE Systems (LSE: BAE) was in final talks to buy Armor Holdings Inc. (NYSE: AH) in a deal worth $3.5 billion, or $88 a shares (7% premium over the close on Friday) according to the Wall Street Journal. It was still possible the transaction could fall apart. AH shares are up nearly 6% in pre-market.
  
• ABN AMRO (NYSE: ABN) rejected a $24.5 billion offer for its U.S. bank LaSalle from a consortium led by Royal Bank of Scotland, saying it would put the offer and other proposals to a shareholder vote, but insisting it isn't superior to Bank of America's (NYSE: BAC) $21 billion offer.
• Microsoft Corp. (NASDAQ: MSFT) and Yahoo! Inc. (NASDAQ: YHOO) are said to have quit merger talks and may be focusing on a partnership instead. Yahoo shares declined in Europe.
• A dramatic turnaround in the Qantas Airways takeover. After being sure they had failed to gain shareholder support, the group bidding 10.8 billion Australian dollars ($8.9 billion) for Australia's Qantas Airways said Saturday just enough shareholders had accepted its offer to keep the deal alive.
• Berkshire Hathaway Inc. (NYSE: BRK.A), Warren Buffett's company, had it annual meeting over the weekend and said it might make a $40 billion to $60 billion acquisition that would require him to sell stocks to free up funds.