(Il Sole 24 Ore Radiocor) - Milano, 16 mar - US futures were higher as oil prices eased back from recent highs at the start of a week dominated by the war in Iran and a Federal Reserve policy meeting.

Wall Street ended lower on Friday to close out a losing week amid concern over the escalating conflict in the Middle East.

The Dow shed 2% over five days while the S&P 500 lost 1.6% and the Nasdaq 1.3%.

Crude prices took a breather from their upward climb as Washington picked up efforts to forge an alliance to help escort ships through the Strait of Hormuz, a critical chokepoint for global oil trade. Over the weekend a number of tankers successfully transited the waterway, raising hopes for a reopening of the route. In recent days, Iran has ramped up attacks on energy infrastructure in the region as it looks to respond to US-Israeli aggression.

The latest moves come as the Federal Reserve gears up for its latest monetary policy meeting this week. With fears high crude prices could rekindle inflation, most analysts expect the Fed to keep interest rates on hold.

On the stocks front, shares in Nvidia rose 1.8% in premarket trade ahead of the AI chip maker's artificial intelligence summit while shares in Meta rose 3.2% after reports the company is planning big layoffs. Nebius stock jumped 10.9% after announcing a 27 billion dollar deal to give Meta AI infrastructure capacity.

Futures on the Dow Jones were up 351.00 points, or 0.75%, S&P 500 futures were up 62.50 points, or 0.94%, while futures on.

the Nasdaq were up 280.75 points, or 1.15%.

(RADIOCOR) 16-03-26 14:10:20 (0364) 5 NNNN