NEW YORK (Reuters) – Stocks opened lower on Monday after a five-week rally on concerns Greece will be unable to avoid a chaotic default as it tries to reach terms on a new bailout package.

The Dow Jones industrial average (.DJI) dropped 53.20 points, or 0.41 percent, to 12,809.03. The Standard & Poor’s 500 Index (.SPX) dropped 5.81 points, or 0.43 percent, to 1,339.09. The Nasdaq Composite Index (.IXIC) dropped 15.26 points, or 0.53 percent, to 2,890.40.

(Reporting By Edward Krudy; editing by Jeffrey Benkoe)

(Reuters) – General Motors (GM.N) aims to raise its profit margin to 10 percent over the next several years, up from the current margin of about 6 percent, Daniel Ammann, chief financial officer, told the Wall Street Journal in an interview.

If GM could achieve its target of 10 percent margin, then it may generate up to $15 billion in profits and record net income in excess of $10 billion, based on the level of revenue GM had last year. That revenue is estimated at close to $150 billion, the newspaper said.

GM confirmed the income calculations, the Journal said.

Also, GM is likely to report 2011 net income of about $8 billion when it releases results on February 16, its highest ever, helped by growth in China and strong profits in North America, the Journal said, citing people who have seen the figures.

GM was not immediately available for comment outside regular U.S. business hours.

General Motors regained its title as the world’s top-selling automaker in 2011, less than three years after its 2009 taxpayer-funded bankruptcy under the Obama administration.

(Reporting by Sakthi Prasad; Editing by Muralikumar Anantharaman)

(Reuters) – Shareholders in global miner Xstrata Plc (XTA.L) are set to receive 2.8 shares in commodities trader Glencore International (GLEN.L) for each share held as the two firms try to seal an $88 billion deal, the Financial Times reported on Monday.

The terms of the all-share deal, likely to be unveiled on Tuesday, would represent an 8 percent premium to Xstrata’s share price before news of the merger talks surfaced last week, the newspaper said in an unsourced report.

The ratio was higher than had been expected by most analysts or investors, the paper said. The deal terms could still change, it said.

Xstrata, in which Glencore already has a 34 percent stake, announced last week it had been approached by the world’s largest diversified commodities trader and was in talks over an all-share “merger of equals,” a deal that would be the largest in the sector since Rio Tinto’s takeover of Alcan in 2007.

Sources earlier told Reuters the two groups, which restarted discussions before Christmas after years of on-off talks, have reached a preliminary understanding on the structure of the combined group’s top management.

Xstrata is expected to take a majority of seats on the board, and would keep its chairman, City heavyweight John Bond, as well as its chief executive, Mick Davis, and its chief financial officer, Trevor Reid.

Glencore Chief Executive Ivan Glasenberg, who will be the largest single shareholder in the combined mining and trading entity, is expected to hold a deputy position.

(Reporting by Narayanan Somasundaram; Editing by Mark Bendeich and Richard Pullin)

(Reuters) – Boeing (BA.N) has discovered a problem related to the aft fuselage of its 787 Dreamliner planes and is making repairs that will not affect production of the aircraft, the company said in an emailed statement on Sunday.

The 787 Dreamliner is a light-weight, fuel-efficient, carbon-composite aircraft. It was three years behind its development schedule but finally entered service last year.

“Boeing has found that incorrect shimming was performed on support structure on the aft fuselage of some 787s,” Boeing spokesman Scott Lefeber said.

Lefeber added, “we do not expect that it will affect our planned product rate increases,” and that there are no short-term safety concerns.

Boeing aims to ramp up monthly production on the airplane to 10 by the end of 2013. Some experts believe the target rate is too ambitious, but Boeing is standing by it.

Lefeber declined to identify how many aircraft were affected.

The news was first reported by the aviation website Flightglobal.

(Reporting By Liana B. Baker in New York and Kyle Peterson in Chicago; Editing by Tim Dobbyn)

BERLIN (Reuters) – The majority of Germans feel the euro currency bloc would be better off if debt-crippled Greece left it, a poll published in mass-selling newspaper Bild am Sonntag showed on Sunday.

The Emnid poll said 53 percent of Germans surveyed thought Greece should return to its former currency, the drachma, while only 34 percent felt it should keep the euro.

Euro zone ministers had hoped to meet this coming Monday to finalize the second Greek bailout, which must be in place by mid-March to prevent a chaotic default, but the meeting was postponed because of reluctance in Athens to commit to reforms.

Without the austerity measures, which include cutting holiday bonuses and lowering the minimum wage in a country reeling from its fifth year of recession, the ministers say they cannot approve the 130 billion euro ($171 billion) rescue plan.

The Emnid poll said 80 percent of Germans surveyed opposes releasing the rescue package unless Greece implements the reforms.

(Writing by Brian Rohan; Editing by Will Waterman)