Stocks: Welcoming the 2nd half

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Investors were set to kick off the second half of 2013 by buying stocks, bouncing off the market's worst month of the year.

U.S. stock futures were firmer Monday, with the Dow, Nasdaq and S&P 500 all up in premarket trading.

Investors will kick off July by sifting through a few economic reports.

At 10 a.m. ET, the Institute for Supply Management will release its index on the U.S. manufacturing sector for June. Also at 10 a.m., the U.S. Census Bureau will release its report on May construction spending.

Stocks wrapped up the second quarter with all three indexes recording gains of between 2% and 5%, despite ending June down roughly 1%.

Related: Fear & Greed Index mired in extreme fear

Shares of BlackBerry (BBRY) continued to sink nearly 4% in premarket trading Monday. The company last week reported first-quarter results that fell far short of analysts' forecasts.

European markets were all higher in morning trading. British investors may be in a more upbeat mood as a new governor, Mark Carney, joins the Bank of England from Canada. Markets are generally expecting looser monetary policy from the central banker.

"We won't have to wait long to gauge how Mr. Carney will use his new powers, as the first big event happens this Thursday when he chairs his first meeting of the Bank of England's Monetary Policy Committee," explained Lee McDarby, from Investec's Corporate Treasury unit.

European investors were also cheering Nokia's (NOK) decision to pay $2.2 billion to buy the entire Nokia Siemens Networks unit, which is 50% owned by Siemens (SI). Shares of Nokia jumped as much as 10%.

Related: Nokia shares pop on Siemens deal

Asian markets ended mostly higher, with the Shanghai Composite up 0.8% and Tokyo's Nikkei gaining 1.3%. Hong Kong's stock exchange was closed for a holiday.

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