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* Futures up: Dow 0.63%, S&P 0.49%, Nasdaq 0.53%

Aug 3 (Reuters) - U.S. stock index futures edged higher on

Monday as signs of de-escalating tensions in the Middle East

weighed on crude prices, while investors prepared for another

week packed with earnings and economic data.

Traders also weighed potential consolidation in the

healthcare sector, after a report said Bristol Myers Squibb ( BMY )

and AstraZeneca ( AZN ) held preliminary merger talks,

which could form one of the world's biggest drugmakers worth

nearly $400 billion. The U.S. company's shares rose 8% in

premarket trading, while its UK rival slid 6%.

In geopolitics, U.S. President Donald Trump said talks with

Iran to reopen the Strait of Hormuz will happen sometime during

the day but declined to set a deadline for an agreement.

Brent Crude prices fell 5.7% to $83.77 a barrel,

while the yield on the two-year Treasury note,

reflecting short-term interest rate expectations, dipped four

basis points to 4.291%. Higher energy costs, since the start of

the conflict, have fueled uncertainty over repercussions on the

global economy.

After Big Tech earnings in the previous week showed that AI

investments were paying off, investors will be keen on how other

major names in the AI space have been faring.

SpaceX will report on Tuesday its first quarterly

report since its public debut, with the scrutiny on its AI

spending and profits from its Starlink satellite communications

network. Shares of the Elon Musk-backed company, which have been

trading below their offering price of $135 for nearly three

weeks, inched up 0.3%.

Other AI-linked companies reporting this week include

Palantir ( PLTR ), Advanced Micro Devices ( AMD ), and memory

chipmakers SanDisk ( SNDK ) and Western Digital ( WDC ).

Palantir ( PLTR ) was up 2.5%, while other stocks were little changed.

Micron dipped 1.3% after Reuters reported that

Chinese rival CXMT is considering building a second

memory-chip plant in Beijing and is in financing talks with a

tech manufacturing hub backed by the local government.

At 5:29 a.m. ET, Dow E-minis were up 329 points,

or 0.63% and S&P 500 E-minis were up 36.75 points,

or 0.49%. Nasdaq 100 E-minis were up 151 points,

or 0.53%.

Wall Street had a rough July, bogged down by global concerns

about the trajectory for artificial intelligence, interest rates

and a raging conflict in the Middle East.

Adding to the uncertainty, Federal Reserve chair Kevin Warsh

raised the idea of reducing the number of regularly scheduled

rate-setting meetings, a report said, in line with his plan to

reduce Fed guidance on rates.

Traders are pricing in a 64% chance that the central bank

would increase interest rates in September, the CME Group's

FedWatch Tool showed.

Healthcare, consumer and energy sectors will also be in

focus, with earnings from Eli Lilly ( LLY ), McDonald's

and Occidental Petroleum ( OXY ) among those due this week.

The week is also packed with several labor market reports,

with the official non-farm payrolls figures due on Friday. A

business activity survey later in the day would give markets a

clearer picture about the health of the manufacturing sector

during July.

Traders also kept an eye on U.S-Japan intervention in

currency markets to halt the yen's slide.

(Reporting by Johann M Cherian in Bengaluru; Editing by Joyjeet

Das)