U.S. stock index futures gained ground on Sunday evening as oil prices eased amid a pause in exchanges between the U.S. and Iran, while investors turned their attention to a week packed with major technology earnings and a key Federal Reserve meeting.
S&P 500 futures were up 0.7% at 7,499.25, and Nasdaq 100 futures climbed 1.3% to 28,635.75 by 20:43 ET (00:43 GMT). Dow Jones futures traded 0.6% higher at 52,410.0.
Last week ended with mixed trading, but all three main U.S. indexes finished the week lower. The NASDAQ Composite fell about 2.1% for the week, the S&P 500 declined 0.6%, and the Dow Jones Industrial Average slipped 0.4%.
After 13 consecutive nights of U.S. strikes on targets in Iran, President Donald Trump stopped the bombing campaign late on Friday to create space for diplomacy. There were no U.S. strikes reported on Saturday or Sunday, and Iran also held back from launching retaliatory attacks against neighboring countries that host U.S. military bases over the weekend.
The temporary lull in hostilities coincided with a sharp drop in oil. Prices fell more than 5% in Asian trading on Monday after the weekend pause between Washington and Tehran reduced immediate concerns about disruptions to oil flows through the Strait of Hormuz.
The retreat in energy prices helped to ease worries that another surge in fuel costs could push inflation higher and complicate the Federal Reserve's policy outlook.
Investors are now focused on the Federal Reserve's two-day policy meeting, which wraps up on Wednesday. The U.S. central bank is widely expected to leave interest rates unchanged, but markets will be watching the Fed chair's comments closely for signals about the timing of any future rate cuts and policymakers' assessment of inflation risks.
Also on the agenda this week is a slate of earnings from some of Wall Street's largest technology companies, including Apple (AAPL), Microsoft (MSFT), Amazon (AMZN) and Meta Platforms (META). Analysts and investors will be looking for updates on artificial intelligence spending, demand for cloud computing, and capital expenditure plans, after rising AI investment costs had put pressure on technology stocks in recent weeks.
Beyond corporate results and Fed testimony, traders will monitor a busy economic calendar that includes second-quarter U.S. gross domestic product data and the personal consumption expenditures price index, the Fed's preferred inflation gauge, for additional insight into the economy's health and monetary policy prospects.
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