After Gloomy Week, Wall Street Set to Bounce Back

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U.S. stock-index futures pointed higher on Monday morning on the heels of Wall Street's worst weekly rout since November as traders continued paying close attention to the tense situation in Europe.

Today's Markets

As of 8:05 a.m. ET, Dow Jones Industrial Average futures climbed 65 points to 12400, S&P 500 futures gained 7.6 points to 1298 and Nasdaq 100 futures rose 16.5 points to 2485.

The S&P 500 tumbled 4.3% last week -- the third straight week of losses for the broad-market index. The Nasdaq suffered more, skidding 5.3% to the downside.

One main driver has been the debt crisis in Europe. In particular, the growing probability that Greece will be forced to leave the eurozone as it grapples with painful austerity measures has rattled traders' confidence in the 17-member currency bloc.

At the Group of 8 meeting over the weekend, leaders representing some of the world's biggest economies agreed that economic growth, balanced by fiscal discipline, is an important goal. They also expressed their interest in Greece remaining in the eurozone. That shifted the focus somewhat off of the austerity that has weighed severely on many world economies -- especially those in the beleaguered eurozone.

The heads of state "made all the right noises," said Yusuf Heusen, a sales trader at IG Index in London. He cautioned, however, that "we've seen all of this before."

World markets kicked off the week on a positive note. The English FTSE 100 was up 0.75%, while the Euro Stoxx 50, which tracks eurozone blue chips, climbed 0.25%. Market participants struck a generally cautious tone, with no particular resolution coming from Greece ahead of elections there, and continued uncertainty about the state of the world's economy.

"There's a feeling that (the selling) went far enough last week," Heusen said. "The markets are almost in limbo at the moment."

Commodities were little changed on the day. The June crude oil contract edged higher by 28 cents, or 0.31%, to $91.76 a barrel. Wholesale New York Harbor gasoline gained 0.62% to $2.91 a gallon.

In metals, gold rose 90 cents, or 0.06%, to $1,593 a troy once.

Foreign Markets 

Eurozone blue chips gained 0.26%, the English FTSE 100 climbed 0.75% to 5307 and the German DAX rallied 0.95% to 6331.

In Asia, the Japanese Nikkei 225 drifted higher by 0.26% to 8634 and the Chinese Hang Seng dipped 0.16% to 18922.