Markets had a bullish tint to start the fourth quarter, with data showing the health of the U.S. automotive and manufacturing sales ahead. There was brisk mergers-and-acquisitions activity, though most involved companies based outside the U.S. S&P 500 futures rose 1.50 points to 1,235.80 and Nasdaq 100 futures were up 3.00 points at 1,617.00. On Friday, Dow industrials rose 15.92 points at 10,568, the Nasdaq Composite rose 10.47 points at 2,151 and the S&P 500 index rose 1.1 points at 1,228. Outside of equities, the dollar saw strength against both the euro and the yen on Monday, with one euro recently down 0.8% at $1.1927. Against the yen, the buck was 0.5% better at 114.02, which is the highest price seen since May 19. Dollar strength helped knock December gold futures down $4.10 to $468.20. Front-month crude oil contracts were little changed, recently up 23 cents at $66.47 a barrel. Monthly U.S. auto sales figures will be the data highlight of Monday, with ISM manufacturing data also on the agenda. Also on the data front, global semiconductors sales increased by 3.2% in August, reaching $18.6 billion from the $18 billion reported in July, the Semiconductor Industry Association reported. Among individual stocks seeing early activity, Lexar Media ran up $1.32, or 21%, to $7.70 in Instinet pre-open trading. J.P. Morgan upgraded the digital media company to overweight from neutral, citing the recently announced expanded licensing deal with Sony Corp. . Dow industrials component Altria gained 83 cents, or 1.1%, to $74.54 in Instinet after Goldman Sachs raised its fair value estimate for the food and tobacco company to $90 from $85. Analyst Judy Hong said that if the holding company is broken up and each tobacco company optimizes its capital structure, the fair value estimate would be raised to $97, and above $100 over time. Hoku Scientific shot up $1.84, or 17%, to $12.54 in Instinet after the company said late Friday that the U.S. Navy has exercised 2 options valued at $2.5 million in the company's fuel cell demonstration contract. On the downside, fiber optic equipment maker JDS Uniphase slid 18 cents, or 8.1%, to $2.04. Roth Capital Partners downgraded the company to neutral from buy due to valuation, as the stock price had surpassed Analyst Dave Kang's $2.05 target. In addition, the company said in a filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission on Friday that its internal controls over financial reporting might suffer and result in material weaknesses if recently vacated positions within its corporate accounting and finance departments aren't quickly replaced. Celgene slid $2.82, or 5.2%, to $51.50 after the company said the action date for the priority review of its new drug application for Revlimid, its proposed treatment for transfusion-dependent anemia, was pushed back to January 7 by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. Vitesse Semiconductor lost 12 cents, or 6.4%, to $1.75 after the chipmaker cut its fiscal fourth-quarter revenue forecast to $48 million from its prior estimate of $52 million to $53 million. In overseas markets, a disappointing third-quarter tankan survey from Japan weighed on Asia stocks, with Japan's Nikkei 225 falling 49 points, or 0.4%, and the yen also declining. In Europe, markets climbed on a number of deals, including a merger of British pharmacy chains Boots and Alliance Unichem, reports of a Telefonica $24 billion bid for KPN , and NTL's long-awaited $6 billion deal for U.K. cable peer Telewest Global .