U.S. stock futures head higher before Yellen speech

There is little economic or corporate news on the docket Monday, but investors are preparing for a busy week which concludes with jobless data Friday.

A release at 8:45 a.m. local time may show business activity decreased in March. The Institute for Supply Management-Chicago Inc.’s business barometer is expected to fall to 59.5 from 59.8 in February, according to Bloomberg estimates.

However, Federal Reserve Chairman Janet Yellen is to speak at a conference in Chicago at 08:55 local time. The Chairman said that the Fed may wait around six months from the end of their asset-purchases program before raising interest rates.

Fed Bank of Chicago President Charles Evans said March 28 that the central bank will probably increase interest rates in the second half of 2015.

U.S. stock futures were higher ahead of the open.

-Futures on the Dow Jones Industrial Average advanced 0.320% to 16292

-Futures on the S&P 500 advanced 0.324% to 1856.40

-Futures on the NASDAQ 100 advanced 0.393% to 3577.00 . As of 07:08 a.m. ET

The Dow, S&P 500 and NASDAQ all ended Friday less than 1% higher. The Dow was the only major U.S. index to end the week in positive territory after a decent 60-point rally on Friday.

The S&P has eked out a gain of 0.5% over the year to date, but the Dow remains stuck in the red, still down 1.5% during the quarter. The NASDAQ Composite was down 0.5% for the quarter.