US Stock Futures Signal Higher Start On Wall Street, AT&T To Buy T-Mobile USA For $39 billion

US stock futures are higher this morning, after AT&T T announced its plans to buy T-Mobile USA for around $39 billion. Futures for the Dow Jones Industrial Average surged 115 points to 11,914.00, while those for the S&P 500 stock index climbed 15.60 points to 1,289.80. Futures for the Nasdaq 100 index surged 27 points to 2,248.50. US stocks closed higher on Friday, with the Dow Jones industrial average gaining 83.93 points to 11,858.52, the Standard & Poor's 500 Index rising 5.49 points to 1,279.21 and the Nasdaq Composite Index climbing 7.62 points to 2,643.67. Data on February existing home sales will be released at 10 a.m. ET. AT&T Inc signed an agreement with Deutsche Telekom AG DTEGY to buy T-Mobile USA for around $39 billion in cash and stock. American International Group Inc AIG projects $1billion of catastrophe losses in the first quarter. The sum includes $700 million for the earthquake and tsunami in Japan. Wall Street expects Tiffany & Co TIF to report its Q4 earnings at $1.39 per share on revenue of $1.10 billion. Most Asian markets ended higher, with Australia's S&P/ASX 200 rising 0.39% and China's Shanghai Composite gaining 0.08%. Hong Kong's Hang Seng index rose 1.73% and India's Sensex dropped 24.24 points. Japan reported that power cables have been connected to all six nuclear reactors at its Fukushima Daiichi power plant. Positive sentiment ruled the European markets today. While STOXX Europe 600 Index has gained 1.57%, London's FTSE 100 Index moved up 1.12%. Crude oil futures rose $1.98 to $103.05 per barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange (NYMEX) in the Globex electronic session. Western powers launched air strikes against the forces of Gadhafi. The dollar rose 0.7% to ¥81.168 against the yen. However, the euro traded at $1.4163 versus the dollar. Read more from Benzinga's Markets.