Futures jump early as crude prices rebound

NEW YORK (Reuters) - U.S. stock index futures rose on Monday, following the worst week for the S&P 500 in more than two years, with investors focused on a rebound in crude oil prices which earlier hit a fresh 5-1/2-year low.

* Stocks in the energy sector are likely to rise as Brent and U.S. crude prices rebounded. The Select Sector Energy SPDR exchange-traded fund gained 1.2 percent in light premarket trading.

* U.S. data on tap includes the New York Federal Reserve's survey of manufacturers for December at 8:30 a.m. EST and the Fed's gauge of industrial output and capacity utilization at 9:15 a.m. .

* Shares of pet supply retailer PetSmart rose 4.2 percent in premarket trading after it agreed to be bought by a private equity consortium led by BC Partners Ltd for $8.7 billion, in the largest leveraged buyout of the year.

* Workers at Amazon warehouses in Germany began a three-day strike for better pay and work conditions as the online retailer raced to ensure holiday orders are delivered on time. In early New York trading, Amazon shares were bid slightly higher than the stock's close on Friday.

* Traders will keep an eye on Sydney, where Australian police locked down the city's downtown area after an armed man walked into a busy cafe, took hostages and forced them to display an Islamic flag, igniting fears of a jihadist attack.

* Separately, four gunmen took a hostage in an apartment in the Belgian city of Ghent on Monday, the state prosecution service said, adding it had no indication whether it was a terrorist act.

Futures snapshot at 7:27 a.m. EST:

* S&P 500 e-minis were up 14.5 points, or 0.73 percent, with 143,336 contracts changing hands.

* Nasdaq 100 e-minis were up 33.25 points, or 0.79 percent, in volume of 10,419 contracts.

* Dow e-minis <1YMc1> were up 109 points, or 0.63 percent, with 10,607 contracts changing hands.

(Reporting by Rodrigo Campos; Editing by Bernadette Baum)