US pre-open: Dow futures in the green following eighth-straight losing week

US futures were in the green ahead of the bell on Monday as market participants look to try to reclaim recent losses following what has been an extended and relentless sell-off on the Street.

As of 1220 BST, Dow Jones futures were up 0.85%, while S&P 500 and Nasdaq-100 futures had the indices opening 0.98% and 0.80% higher, respectively.

The Dow closed just 8.77 points higher on Friday and officially booked its first eight-week losing streak for almost a century.

Investor sentiment got a boost ahead of the open after Joe Biden stated he was mulling over the idea of lowering tariffs on certain products imported into the States from China.

"I am considering it. We did not impose any of those tariffs. They were imposed by the last administration and they're under consideration," Biden said.

AvaTrade's Naeem Aslam said: "US and European futures are trading positive today as traders are feeling a bit optimistic about the news that the Biden Administration could be reversing some of the tariffs imposed on China during Trump era. This is certainly a step in the right direction to control inflation as imposing tariffs on China certainly fuelled inflation.

"Having said that, equity markets are a long way away from being out of the woods as the US equity is constantly flirting with a bear market, and we saw that happen again for the S&P 500 on Friday. The Nasdaq has dropped more than 20% from its all-time, and the index has been trading in a bear market. It was mainly the S&P 500 index, among the other two indices, the Dow and Nasdaq, trying to keep the sentiment somewhat positive."

On the macro front, the Chicago Fed's April national activity index will be published at 1330 BST, while Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta president Raphael Bostic will deliver a speech at 1700 BST.

In the corporate space, shares in cloud computing outfit VMWare were up more than 20% before the opening bell after news broke that chipmaker Broadcomm was in talks to purchase the firm.

Zoom Video Communications will report its latest quarterly earnings figures after the close.

Reporting by Iain Gilbert at Sharecast.com