U.S. stock index futures pointed to slightly higher open Monday after the long Easter weekend as investors considered recent hawkish remarks from officials at the U.S. Federal Reserve which could herald a U.S. interest rate increase as soon as next month.
Consumer spending edged up 0.1 percent in February, while personal income rose 0.2 percent.
Excluding food and energy, prices gained 0.1 percent after advancing 0.3 percent in January. In the 12 months through February, the so-called core PCE price index increased 1.7 percent after a similar increase in January, Reuters said.
Dow futures were off earlier highs to trade about 30 points higher. The U.S. dollar index gave up gains, with the euro near $1.1177 as of 8:38 a.m. ET.
Treasury yields held little changed, with the 2-year yield near 0.87 percent and the 10-year yield around 1.90 percent.
U.S. crude oil futures were up more than 1 percent just below $40 a barrel.
Tuesday sees Fed Chair Janet Yellen speaking on economic and monetary policy and investors will be parsing her speech for more clues on how many rate hikes the Open Markets Committee are looking at and when.
Her remarks will follow those made by St. Louis Fed President James Bullard in a speech last week where he stated another U.S. interest rate hike "may not be far off."
Early on Monday ET, San Francisco Fed President John Williams told CNBC the U.S. economy was doing "quite well" and that global developments are preventing the United States from returning to normalized interest rates.
In other economic news, pending home sales are due at 10 a.m.
Markets in Europe were closed for a public holiday while, in Asia, Japan's benchmark Nikkei 225 closed up 0.77 percent, the Topix added 1.16 percent and the Kospi closed nearly flat at 1,982.54.
There are no major company earnings announcements expected Monday.