Before the bell: Waiting for jobs report, futures

British bank Barclays PLC (NYSE: BCS) withdrew its takeover offer for ABN Amro Holding NV (NYSE: ABN) on Friday, saying not enough shareholders tendered their shares. This leaves a consortium led by Royal Bank of Scotland PLC in position to buy ABN Amro in a deal worth €70.5 billion (US$99.9 billion), the largest takeover in the history of the financial industry.

Yahoo! Inc. (NASDAQ: YHOO) shares are up over 2.2% in premarket trading after Alibaba.com Corp., a unit of China's Alibaba Group, which is partly owned by Yahoo! won approval from the Hong Kong Stock Exchange to sell up to $1 billion worth of shares in its long-anticipated IPO.

The U.S. attorney in Brooklyn is investigating the collapse of two mortgage-related Bear Stearns (NYSE: BSC) hedge funds whose failure this summer cost investors an estimated $1.6 billion, according to the Wall Street Journal. The criminal probe is in the early stages and has yet to generate subpoenas.

Spring Nextel Corp. (NYSE: S) shares are up over 2% in premarket trading after the Wall Street Journal reported it has quietly launched a hunt for a successor to CEO [subscription] Gary Forsee amid investor pressure. The board hopes to name a new leader by early December.

Alcoa Inc. (NYSE: AA) announced yesterday it would take charges of $845 million as it closes in on the sale of two businesses - packaging and consumer products, and automotive castings - enabling it to focus on new growth opportunities.

According to FORTUNE, Apple Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL) "there are signs that that Steve Jobs may be set to open the iPhone up to outside programmers - or at least those who agree to obey his rules."

Rio Tinto (NYSE: RTP) shares are up nearly 1.5% in premarket trading despite being downgraded to Hold from Buy by ABN Amro, mostly on valuation.
Wachovia Securities downgraded Monster Worldwide, Inc. (NASDAQ: MNST) to Market Perform from Outperform, citing recent evidence of a slowdown in its North America Careers division.
Walgreen Co. (NYSE: WAG) was downgraded to Sell from Buy at Banc of America Securities.