Futures Jump on Hopes for 'Fiscal Cliff' Deal

U.S. stock index futures climbed Monday amid signs of progress for a "fiscal cliff" deal in Washington and ahead of a pair of housing reports.

Both European and Asian shares traded higher after U.S. President Barack Obama said that a fiscal cliff deal can be reached. This hinges on Democrats and Republicans in the U.S. Congress and White House agreeing on how to reduce the country's debt levels before December 31.

Meanwhile in Europe, euro zone officials are looking to formalize a two-year extension for Greece to reach its budget targets, and will discuss the matter on Tuesday.

Intel announced that president and CEO Paul Otellini, has decided to retire in May. Shares were halted following the news.

Also among techs, Cisco edged higher after the tech bellwether said it will acquire privately-held cloud networking company Meraki in a deal worth $1.2 billion as part of its cloud and networking strategy.

Citigroup will slash 300 jobs globally this year, according to the Wall Street Journal. Separately, the bank also agreed to pay $360 million to the brokerage estate of Lehman Brothers to resolve a dispute over $1 billion in collateral that the investment bank was forced to post in the days leading up to its bankruptcy in 2008.

Among earnings, Lowe's jumped after the home-improvement retailer reported quarterly results and same-store sales that topped expectations.

Tyson Foods rallied after the food producer exceeded earnings expectations and boosted its quarterly dividend.

Monthly existing home sales data is expected at 10 am ET. Economists polled by Thomson Reuters forecast 4.75 million sales were made in October, the same as in September.

And the National Association of Home Builders will release its market sentiment index for November at 10 am ET. Analysts polled by Reuters forecast the index coming in at 41, the same as in October.

—By CNBC's JeeYeon Park (Follow JeeYeon on Twitter: @JeeYeonParkCNBC)

On Tap Next Week:

MONDAY: Existing home sales, housing market index; Earnings from Urban Outfitters, Jack in the Box
TUESDAY: Housing starts, Richmond Fed's Lacker speaks, Bernanke speaks at the Econ. Club of New York, Kindle Fire HD w/4G LTE ships; Earnings from Hewlett-Packard, Best Buy, Campbell Soup, Chico's, Salesforce.com
WEDNESDAY: Weekly mortgage applications, jobless claims, PMI manufacturing index flash, consumer sentiment, leading indicators, oil inventories; Earnings from Deere
THURSDAY: Happy Thanksgiving! - Markets closed
FRIDAY: Black Friday - NYSE closes at 1pm ET / CME closes at 1:15pm ET

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