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Futures up: Dow 0.42%, S&P 0.48%, Nasdaq 0.56%

April 22 (Reuters) - U.S. stock index futures gained on

Monday after slumping in the previous session as easing Middle

East tensions buoyed risk sentiment, while investors looked

ahead for an action-packed week with major tech earnings and a

key inflation print.

The Nasdaq and the S&P 500 ended lower on

Friday as Netflix ( NFLX ) shares weighed after a dour quarterly

earnings report, with both the indexes suffering six straight

sessions of declines last week, their longest losing streak

since October 2022.

Nvidia ( NVDA ) led gains across megacap growth stocks with

a 2.4% rise in premarket trading, rebounding from a 10% drop in

the last session.

Other stocks such as Meta Platforms ( META ), Amazon.com ( AMZN )

and Alphabet edged higher between 0.3% and

0.9%.

Tesla, Meta Platforms ( META ), Alphabet and Microsoft ( MSFT )

will be in focus this week as the companies gear up to

deliver their quarterly numbers, whose performance could further

test the rally in U.S. stocks.

The risk-on mode was also supported by signs of easing

tensions in the Middle East, as Iran's foreign minister said on

Friday Tehran was investigating an overnight attack, adding that

so far a link to Israel had not been proven as he downplayed the

strike.

"Overnight, risk sentiment is better on relief rally that no

adverse geopolitical headlines were reported on the weekend,"

Mohit Kumar, chief economist Europe at Jefferies, said in a

note.

"Our cautious stance continues this week, though the

repricing from last week, particularly in tech stocks would give

an opportunity to buy the dip."

Equities have sold-off recently as market participants

readjust their interest rate cut expectations from the U.S.

Federal Reserve after a string of strong economic data signaling

persistent inflationary pressures.

Money markets are now pricing in just about 38 basis points

(bps) of rate cuts this year, down from about 150 bps seen at

the beginning of the year, according to LSEG data.

On the docket this week would be the price consumption

expenditure (PCE) index reading for March -- the Fed's preferred

inflation gauge -- to further ascertain the monetary policy

trajectory.

At 5:38 a.m. ET, Dow e-minis were up 161 points, or

0.42%, S&P 500 e-minis were up 24 points, or 0.48%, and

Nasdaq 100 e-minis were up 95.75 points, or 0.56%.

Among single stocks, Tesla fell 2.7% before the bell as the

electric vehicle maker cut prices in a number of its major

markets, including China and Germany, following price reductions

in the United States.

Salesforce ( CRM ) rose 3.4% after the business software

maker backed away from its talks to acquire data-management

software firm Informatica ( INFA ) after the two companies could

not agree on terms.

Informatica's ( INFA ) shares were down 6.3%.