Near 8:52 a.m. ET, Dow futures were up 69 points, S&P 500 futures were up 8 points, and Nasdaq futures were up 21 points - all by less than 0.5%.
Dave Lutz, head of ETF trading at JonesTrading, pointed out in his morning briefing that futures jumped alongside Italian banks before sunrise in New York, after news of an investment fund to help local lenders deal with bad loans and recapitalize.
We'll hear from the big US banks later this week, when their earnings are expected to show that some banks including Goldman Sachs had the worst results in 10 years, according to Lutz.
Aluminum giant Alcoa gets earnings season going after the market close on Monday. You can read our full earnings-season preview here.
There's no US economic data on the calendar. But there's some Fedspeak, from New York Fed president Bill Dudley at 9:25 a.m. ET, and the Dallas Fed's Kevin Kaplan at 1 p.m.
US crude oil climbed back above $40 per barrel on Sunday. Ahead of the opening bell, West Texas Intermediate crude for May delivery was up by less than 1% and near $40.05 per barrel.