08:53 AM EDT, 04/22/2024 (MT Newswires) -- US equity futures were higher ahead of Monday's opening bell at the start of a big week for corporate earnings.

Dow Jones Industrial Average futures, S&P 500 futures, and Nasdaq futures were all up around 0.5%.

Technology heavyweights Alphabet (GOOG, GOOGL), Meta Platforms ( META ) , Microsoft ( MSFT ) , and Tesla (TSLA) are all scheduled to report this week.

Oil prices were lower, with front-month global benchmark Brent crude down 1% and US West Texas Intermediate down 1.1% as fears of escalating tensions in the Middle East subsided after both Israel and Iran downplayed recent hostilities.

The Chicago Fed National Activity index, released at 8:30 am ET, came in at 0.15 for March versus 0.09 previously and estimates compiled by Bloomberg for a 0.07 level.

In other world markets, Japan's Nikkei closed 1% higher, Hong Kong's Hang Seng ended jumped 1.8%, and China's Shanghai Composite finished 0.7% lower. Meawhile, UK's FTSE 100 rose 1.6%, and Germany's DAX index gained 0.5% in Europe's early afternoon session.

In equities, shares of Salesforce ( CRM ) were 3.5% higher pre-bell following media reports the company backed out of negotiations to acquire Informatica ( INFA ) .

On the losing side, Informatica ( INFA ) shares were down 6%. CNH Industrial ( CNHI ) shares fell 4.8% after the company secured a 3.25 billion euro ($3.46 billion) revolving credit facility.