Before the bell 7-30-07: Investors unsure before today's open

So far this morning, stock futures have indicated various direction, with futures around 7:15 indicating a flat to lower open for U.S. markets as the Street tried to today recover from last week, the worst in over four years.

Last week, the Dow Jones Industrial average dropped 4.2%, the S&P 500 5% and the Nasdaq Composite 4.6%. While no fundamentals have changed significantly, on the contrary, GDP and inflation numbers were surprised on the upside, it was the continued credit crunch problems that caused investors to worry about deal making going forward.

This morning, however, futures got a boost from international markets. Asian markets finished mostly higher and European shares at first made modest gains on Monday morning following several announced deals. European shares have changed direction and are now back in negative territory though.

While there are no economic reading today, this week will see several, including jobs report, inflation indicators and personal income and spending among others.

In corporate news, ABN Amro Holding NV (NYSE: ABN) dropped its support for a takeover offer by Barclays PLC (NYSE: BCS). The bank will also not the Royal Bank of Scotland PLC bid either, thus adopting a neutral position.

There is still a busy week of earnings ahead with Verizon (NYSE: VZ) and Sun Microsystems (NASDAQ: SUNW) reporting today.

Archer Daniels Midland Co.(NYSE: ADM) already reported quarterly profit that more than doubled due to one-time gains, though ethanol sales volume declined.