Hopes that the Fed will soon end its aggressive monetary policy tightening have helped the main U.S. equity benchmarks stabilize in April after a selloff last month that was triggered by the collapse of two U.S. mid-sized lenders.

A strong labor market report on Friday, however, lifted bets that the U.S. central bank will increase rates by 25 basis points in May, with money market traders pricing in a nearly 70% chance of such a move, according to CME Group's Fedwatch tool.

All eyes will be on the inflation data on Wednesday, with economists forecasting consumer prices to grow 5.2% in March after a 6.0% rise in February. However, core prices are seen rising 5.6%, a slightly faster pace compared with the 5.5% growth in February.

Big U.S. banks Citigroup Inc., JPMorgan Chase & Co. and Wells Fargo & Co. will kick off the first-quarter earnings season. Investors will be scrutinizing the earnings reports for clues on the overall health of the banking sector.

Analysts expect first-quarter profits at S&P 500 companies to fall 5.2% year-on-year, a stark reversal from the 1.4% annual growth expected at the beginning of the year, according to Refinitiv data.

At 5:56 a.m. ET, Dow e-minis were up 51 points, or 0.15%, S&P 500 e-minis were up 10.75 points, or 0.26%, and Nasdaq 100 e-minis were up 44.75 points, or 0.34%.

Shares of crypto-related companies such as Coinbase Global Inc., Riot Platforms Inc. and Marathon Digital Holdings Inc. climbed between 3.0% and 4.2% as bitcoin breached the key $30,000 level for the first time in 10 months.

National CineMedia Inc. soared 91.7% after AMC Entertainment Holdings Inc. disclosed a stake in the theater-focused advertising company.

U.S.-listed shares of Hexo Corp. plunged 22.0% after Tilray Brands Inc said it would buy the Canadian cannabis company for $56 million. Tilray's shares also fell 5.8%.