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.