* Futures up: Dow 0.66%, S&P 500 0.64%, Nasdaq 0.59%

* Report Sysco to buy Restaurant Depot in $29 bln deal,

shares fall

* Morgan Stanley downgrades global equities to "equal

weight"

* Comments from Fed's Jerome Powell, John Williams

awaited

(Updates with prices)

By Purvi Agarwal and Twesha Dikshit

March 30 (Reuters) - U.S. stock index futures ticked

higher on Monday after the indexes logged sharp declines in the

previous session, following President Donald Trump's comments on

the U.S. and Iran talks while the Middle East conflict widened.

Yemen's Iran-backed Houthi militia entered the war over the

weekend and more U.S. troops arrived in the Middle East as

President Donald Trump said he wanted to "take the oil in Iran"

in a Financial Times interview.

Trump on Sunday said that the U.S. and Iran had been meeting

"directly and indirectly" and Pakistan, acting as intermediary,

said "meaningful talks" could be hosted in the coming days.

"The market is grappling with two major unknowns that feed

directly into each other: when oil flows will resume in

meaningful volumes, and at what price level oil switches from an

inflation story to a recession story," said Stefan Koopman,

senior macro strategist at Rabobank.

Koopman also said seizing Iran's Kharg Island would only

choke its export capacity and push global oil prices higher.

Oil prices extended gains on Monday, after Houthis launched

their first attacks on Israel, sending energy stocks higher with

Exxon Mobil ( XOM ) and Chevron ( CVX ) up over 1.3% each in

premarket trading.

Wall Street's main indexes ended their fifth consecutive

week in the red on Friday, with the blue-chip Dow confirming it

was in correction territory after closing more than 10% below

its record high.

The Nasdaq and the small-cap Russell 2000 have also

confirmed the correction territory since the war began. The

benchmark S&P 500 is a little over 1% away from the mark.

Wall Street brokerage Morgan Stanley downgraded global

equities to "equal weight" from "overweight", but said fund

flows to U.S. equities and bonds had overtaken the rest of the

world since the conflict began, indicating it might re-emerge as

a safe haven for investors.

At 07:24 a.m. ET, Dow E-minis were up 299 points, or

0.66%, S&P 500 E-minis were up 41 points, or 0.64% and

Nasdaq 100 E-minis were up 138.5 points, or 0.59%.

U.S. markets will be closed on Friday for the Good Friday

holiday.

The spike in oil prices resulting from the Iran conflict has

revived inflation fears, putting central banks in a tough spot

with regard to interest rates.

Money market participants are not pricing in any easing from

the Federal Reserve this year, compared with two cuts before the

war began, as per CME Group's FedWatch Tool.

Investors will closely monitor comments from Fed Chair

Jerome Powell and New York Fed President John Williams,

scheduled to speak later in the day.

A host of labor market data, including the nonfarm payrolls

figures for March, is scheduled for release this week and

expected to provide more insight into the health of the economy.

Among other movers, Sysco's ( SYY ) shares dropped 4.7%

before the bell after the Wall Street Journal reported the food

distributor was nearing a $29 billion deal to acquire catering

supplier Restaurant Depot.

Shares of aluminum producers climbed as prices of the metal

were trading around four-year peaks. Alcoa ( AA ) and Century

Aluminum ( CENX ) gained 8.2% and 9.8%, respectively.