Stock Futures Point to Higher Open

NEW YORK (TheStreet) -- Stock futures were tracking advances in overseas markets and pointing to a higher open on Wall Street even amid sequestration deadline concerns and pending results of Italy's elections.

"There is some nervousness from investors that the voting patterns may produce either a hung parliament or a weak government," said Paul Donovan, global economist at UBS. "This might limit Italy's ability to help with euro reform."

Congress reconvenes in Washington this week, and a deal to avert $85 billion in automatic spending cuts that are set to kick in on March 1 is looking increasingly unlikely.

Futures for the Dow Jones Industrial Average were rising 50 points, or 52.43 points above fair value, at 14,031. Futures for the S&P 500 were up 6 points, or 6.85 points above fair value, at 1521. Futures for the Nasdaq was were higher by 17.25 points, or 16.37 points above fair value, at 2753.

Major U.S. equity indices rallied Friday and the Dow Jones Industrial Average erased losses from two consecutive losing sessions. Stocks also got a lift from Hewlett-Packard's (HPQ) promising earnings.

At 10:30 a.m. EST, the Dallas Federal Reserve releases its general business activity index for February. The reading came in at 5.5 in January.

At 7 p.m., Atlanta Fed President Dennis Lockhard speaks, in Knoxville, Tenn., on the economic outlook.

Gold for April delivery was surging $16.60 at $1,589.40 an ounce at the Comex division of the New York Mercantile Exchange, while April crude oil futures were up 95 cents at $94.08 a barrel.

The benchmark 10-year Treasury was down 6/32, raising the yield to 1.987%. The dollar was down 0.38%, according to the U.S. dollar index.

Overseas markets traded higher Monday amid talk that Haruhiko Kuroda, currently president of the Asian Development Bank, is tipped to become the Bank of Japan's next governor and would likely push for aggressive monetary easing.