As investors prepare for a busy week of interest rate decisions by the Federal Reserve, as well as a slew of quarterly earnings from Big Tech that could shed further light on the state of the underlying economy, US futures increased on Monday.

The S&P 500 futures were up 0.25, 0.29% and 0.24%.

The Europe-wide Stoxx 600 was up in the morning.

The Fed is expected to raise interest rates again when policymakers meet on Tuesday and Wednesday as the US economy grapples with raging inflation. The overarching concensus is that the Fed will raise rates by 75 basis points, however top economists like El-Erian said a 100 basis point hike remains on the table.

"All focus will be on how the Fed guides us in a world where no-one should really believe central bank forward guidance anymore as it's proved very unreliable over the last year," analysts atDeutsche Bank said.

The worry that the US economy will fall into a recession is still weighing on investors' minds.

Earnings results from the likes of Microsoft, Meta and Amazon are due this week along with oil majors and consumer focused companies.

The market will be vulnerable to a sharp decline if results are less than expected.

The challenging economic backdrop has led to warnings by social media companies. The company's second-quarter earnings were hurt by a decline in ad revenue.

Despite falling more than 1% last week, the dollar index was still within sight of its recent 20 year highs thanks to investors looking for a safe-haven in case of an economic downturn.

The global benchmark crude oil gained 1% to trade at $100.42 a barrel, extending last week's 2% rally, as the dollar weakened.

Concerns about a global economic downturn reduced investor appetite for risk assets. Hong Kong's Hang Seng fell 0.22% while the Japanese and Chinese stock markets fell.