Investing.com - U.S. stock futures pointed to a higher open on Monday, as investors were eyeing the release of U.S. economic reports later in the day, although worries about the situation in Crimea continued to weigh on sentiment.
Ahead of the open, the Dow Jones Industrial Average futures pointed to a 0.55% gain, S&P 500 futures signaled a 0.55% increase, while the Nasdaq 100 futures indicated a 0.61% climb.
Market sentiment remained under pressure after over 90% of Crimean voters on Sunday chose to break with Ukraine and join Russia. Crimea's Parliament on Monday formally asked to join the Russian Federation.
U.S. President Barack Obama said Washington rejected the results of the referendum and warned that the U.S. was ready to impose sanctions on Moscow.
The financial sector was expected to be in focus, as the Federal Reserve was set to complete stress tests of the ability of the biggest U.S. lenders to survive new economic disasters.
JPMorgan Chase climbed 0.59% in early trading, while Bank of America and Citigroup gained 0.65% and 0.73% respectively.
Twitter was also set to be in the spotlight, as the company's Chief Executive Officer Dick Costolo was preparing to meet Shanghai government officials, academics and students in his first visit to China, signaling the social media giant's interest in entering a lucrative market with 600 million Internet users.
Twitter shares rallied 1.62% in pre-market trade.
Elsewhere, Vodafone advanced 0.76% in extended trade after agreeing to buy Spain's largest cable operator Ono for $10 billion, in a move to rebuild the British wireless carrier's European operations with a broadband offering.
Across the Atlantic, European stock markets were higher. The EURO STOXX 50 gained 0.64%, France’s CAC 40 climbed 0.57%, Germany's DAX advanced 0.61%, while Britain's FTSE 100 rose 0.34%.
During the Asian trading session, Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index shed 0.30%, while Japan’s Nikkei 225 Index slid 0.35%.
Later in the day, the U.S. was to publish data on manufacturing activity in the Empire State, as well as reports on industrial production and long term securities transactions.