Wall St futures edge higher ahead of this week's megacap earnings

U.S. stock index futures rose slightly on Monday, following last week's chip-stocks-led pullback, as investors awaited a key slate of earnings that could test Wall Street's AI-driven rally, while caution prevailed due to escalating tensions in the Middle East.

The second-quarter earnings season will pick up pace this week, with reports due from several major companies, including Alphabet GOOGL.O, Tesla TSLA.O, Intel INTC.O and IBM IBM.N.

Alphabet, one of the "Magnificent Seven" megacap stocks, is also a major AI hyperscaler, spending billions of dollars on data centers and related infrastructure.

That surge in AI capital spending has been a major driver behind this year's market gains, lifting semiconductor stocks and other companies that are seen as the beneficiaries of the buildout, and helping the major U.S. indexes hit record highs.