The benchmark US stock measures were pointing higher before the opening bell Monday after the US and Iran halted strikes over the weekend, while traders gear up for a busy week that includes a major policy decision by the Federal Reserve, a key inflation report and earnings.
The S&P 500 and the Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 0.8% each in premarket activity, while the Nasdaq increased 1.4%. The S&P 500 and the Dow finished Friday's trading session in the green, while the Nasdaq closed lower.
After 13 consecutive nights of strikes against Iran, no US attacks against Tehran were officially announced over the weekend. Iran said it will also halt its attacks as long as the US does the same, a senior Iranian official told Reuters on Sunday.
West Texas Intermediate crude oil dropped 6.4% to $83.56 a barrel before the open, while Brent fell 8% to $89.06.
The US ambassador to the United Nations Mike Waltz reportedly told Fox News on Sunday that President Donald Trump has paused strikes against Iran to give talks "some space."
Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmail Baghaei said technical talks with Oman on the Strait of Hormuz continued over the weekend, CNBC reported.
Meanwhile, Iran summoned Ukraine's charge d'affaires in Tehran on Sunday over an attack on an Iranian commercial vessel in the Caspian Sea, calling it a "hostile and criminal act," according to a separate CNBC report.
The Fed's monetary policy committee is scheduled to meet on Tuesday, with a decision on interest rates due the following day. The probability the central bank will leave its benchmark lending rate unchanged currently stands at 69%, with the remaining odds in favor of a quarter-percentage-point increase, according to the CME FedWatch tool.
Traders also await the personal income and outlays report for June later in the week. The report includes the personal consumption expenditure core price index, the Fed's preferred inflation metric.
Treasury yields were down in premarket action, with the two-year rate retreating 2.6 basis points to 4.31% and the 10-year rate off 3.8 basis points to 5.12%.
Monday's economic calendar has the durable goods orders report for last month at 8:30 am ET, followed by the Dallas Fed manufacturing survey for July at 10:30 am.
Tech giants Microsoft (MSFT), Apple (AAPL), Amazon (AMZN) and Meta Platforms (META) are scheduled to release their latest financial results later this week, along with Visa (V), Mastercard (MA), ExxonMobil (XOM), Coca Cola (KO), Procter & Gamble (PG), Qualcomm (QCOM) and Boeing (BA).
Shares of Forte Biosciences (FBRX) jumped 39% pre-bell after it agreed to be acquired by Belgian-Dutch immunology firm argenx (ARGX) in a deal worth roughly $2.2 billion. AstraZeneca's (AZN) US-listed stock gained 1.4% after the company reported its latest quarterly results.
Gold inclined 0.7% to $4,098 per troy ounce, while bitcoin advanced 1.1% to $65,350.
