08:52 AM EST, 01/07/2025 (MT Newswires) -- US equity futures were flat ahead of Tuesday's opening bell, with investor sentiment stabilizing after a rally in technology stocks.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average futures rose 0.3%, S&P 500 futures increased 0.2%, while Nasdaq futures flatlined.

Technology stocks got a boost Monday after Microsoft ( MSFT ) President Brad Smith unveiled Friday the company's plan to invest $80 billion in fiscal 2025 to build artificial intelligence-enabled data centers.

Oil prices were higher, with front-month global benchmarks North Sea Brent crude up 0.8% at $76.92 per barrel and US West Texas Intermediate crude 0.6% higher at $74.02 per barrel.

US trade deficit, released at 8:30 am ET, widened to $78.19 billion in December from $73.62 billion in the prior month, compared with estimates compiled by Bloomberg for a $78.3 billion gap.

The Institute for Supply Management Services index, due at 10 am ET, is seen rising to 53.5 in December from 52.1 previously. Forecasters see job openings based on the US Department of Labor's Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey dropping to 7.73 million in November from 7.74 million previously.

In other world markets, Japan's Nikkei closed 2% higher, Hong Kong's Hang Seng ended 1.2% lower, and China's Shanghai Composite finished 0.7% higher. Meanwhile, the UK's FTSE 100 fell 0.1%, and Germany's DAX index gained 0.6% in Europe's early afternoon session.

In equities, shares of Getty Images ( GETY ) were 46% higher pre-bell after the company agreed to merge with Shutterstock ( SSTK ) to form a combined entity valued at about $3.7 billion. Shutterstock ( SSTK ) was up 28%.

On the losing side, Tesla (TSLA) shares fell 1.9% after the US National Highway Traffic Safety Administration launched investigations into the company's vehicle movement technology over alleged safety issues.