Wall St. to open higher on Greece rescue deal

(Reuters) - Wall Street was set to open higher on Monday after euro zone leaders reached an agreement with Greece to move forward with a third bailout loan for the country to avert bankruptcy.

Greece won conditional agreement to receive a possible $95 billion over three years, along with an assurance that euro zone finance ministers would start discussing ways to bridge a funding gap until a bailout ? subject to parliamentary approvals ? is finally ready.

That will only happen if Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras can meet a tight timetable for enacting unpopular reforms of value added tax, pensions and quasi-automatic budget cuts.

"For the markets, it's clearly a positive that there is an agreement among the European member states and that there is an atmosphere of co-operation," said Philippe Gijsels, head of research at BNP Paribas Fortis Global Markets in Brussels.

"Still, there is a bit of execution risk which may haunt us in terms of volatility."

World markets rose, while the dollar index <.DXY> gained 0.51 percent to $96.50 against a basket of major currencies following news of the deal.

S&P 500 e-minis were up 13.5 points, or 0.65 percent, with 328,260 contracts traded at 8:43 a.m. ET. Nasdaq 100 e-minis were up 36.75 points, or 0.83 percent, on volume of 50,330 contracts, while Dow e-minis <1YMc1> were up 128 points, or 0.72 percent, with 49,993 contracts changing hands.

Hopes of a deal helped U.S. markets close higher on Friday. But indexes finished off their highs after Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen said she expected the central bank to raise interest rates at some point this year, while expressing concern that the country's labor market remained weak.

Investors have long expected a rate hike in 2015, though opinions have been split on whether it would come in September or December. Yellen gave no direct hint about whether the Fed would raise rates more than once over the course of its four remaining meetings in 2015.

The Treasury Department is scheduled to issue its June budget report at 2 p.m. ET. The department is expected to post a budget surplus of $51.0 billion, compared with a $82.4 billion deficit reported in May.

Asian stock markets were higher as Chinese stocks rose for a third straight session, following their recent rout, and as data from China showed exports increased while imports slipped in June, in a tentative sign global demand might be on the mend.

However, oil prices tumbled as Iran and six world powers closed in on a nuclear deal that would end sanctions on the Islamic Republic and let more Iranian oil on to world markets.

Apple shares were up 1.3 percent at $124.85 in premarket trading after Socgen upgraded the company's stock to "buy" from "hold", saying it expected a successful launch of the new iPhone 6S handset in September.

Ascena Retail Group slumped 11.1 percent to $14.55 after the retail chain cut its full-year profit forecast.

Remy International soared 42 percent to $29.15 after auto parts maker BorgWarner said it would buy the company for about $1.2 billion in cash, including debt. BorgWarner's shares rose 0.7 percent to $54.01.

(Additional reporting by Atul Prakash and Alistair Smout; Editing by Savio D'Souza)

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