- As investors anticipated a speech by Federal Reserve chair Jerome Powell for clues about the trajectory of interest-rate hikes and evaluated chances for China's economic openness, US equities futures moved higher and the dollar fell for a second day.

- As the Eurozone's inflation slowed for the first time in 1 1/2 years, giving the European Central Bank (ECB) some hope in its fight against inflation, European shares rose the most in more than a week. Contracts for the S&P 500 and the Nasdaq 100 posted modest gains, despite the fact that the underlying indices had lost ground for the previous three days.

- Later on, when Powell makes comments about the economy and the labour market, investors will continue to pay close attention. He is anticipated to indicate that the next Fed rate hike will be scaled back to 50 basis points, but he will also probably caution that more policy tightening is still ahead.

- The expectation of slower interest rate increases, combined with growing optimism regarding China's reopening, drove down the value of the dollar and put it on track to have its worst month since 2010. Benchmark 10-year Treasury yields have decreased by more than 25 basis points since November.