Wall Street index futures pointed to a lower open on Monday as investors await to see the final details of the U.S. government’s $700-billion bailout plan.

There is concern that Congress, which has a Democrat majority, would seek to change U.S. President George Bush’s administration’s proposal. U.S. Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson announced the plan on Friday.

The Democrats have said the plan should include more protections for homeowners and taxpayers and they want time to negotiate it. They have also called for more oversight of the bad loans that are bought and limits on executive payouts.

In addition, the U.S. Federal Reserve Board allowed Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley, the U.S’s last two major independent investment banks, to become bank holding companies. This move, which enables them to become deposit-taking institutions, comes a week after the collapse of Lehman Brothers Holdings and five days after the U.S. government bailed out AIG.

Stock markets overseas rallied Monday after the U.S. government announced the bailout plan. Japan’s Nikkei index rose 1.4% to 12,090.59 points, while Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index jumped 1.2% to 19,632.20.

Markets in Europe rose in early trading. London’s FTSE, Germany’s DAX and France’s CAC 40 all were edging higher at the start of the trading day.

Those increases follow the sharp rises in North American indices seen on Friday during which the S&P/TSX composite index soared 848 points, or 7.03% to close at 12,912.99. The junior S&P/TSX/S&P Venture composite index increased 71 points, or 4.8% to finish the day 1,549.22.

In the U.S., strong gains on the major stock indices on Friday pushed them roughly back to their starting point for last week, during which the Dow Jones Industrial Average shed roughly 800 points in the first three days of trading.

The Dow Jones industrial average finished up 368.75 points, or 3.35%, to close at 11,388.44. The S&P 500 closed up 48.57 points, or 4.02%, at 1,255.08. The tech-heavy Nasdaq composite index ended the day up 74.8 points, or 3.4%, finishing at 2,273.9.