U.S. index futures pointed to a firmer start on Wall Street on Monday, building on gains in the previous session after the Federal Reserve cut the discount rate it charges banks, and with little scheduled news on the agenda.

At 4:50 a.m. EDT, S&P futures and Dow Jones industrial futures were up 0.3 percent and Nasdaq futures were 0.4 percent higher.

Markets generally appear to have lifted, said Peter Dixon, strategist at Commerzbank. It looks like the Fed has bought the markets a bit of time with its actions on Friday, which is carrying over to today, he said.

But it doesn't mean we are out of the woods yet. For the moment at least markets have been satisfied that the Fed is ready to act, said Dixon.

On Friday U.S. stocks rallied after the Fed cut the discount rate by half a percentage point to 5.75 percent in an emergency move to stabilize credit markets and keep the economy on track.

The Standard & Poor's 500 Index had its best day in almost four-and-a-half years and closed 2.46 percent higher.

The Dow Jones industrial average jumped 1.82 percent and the Nasdaq Composite Index soared 2.2 percent.

The danger still lies ahead that somewhere out there is going to be an institution which is going to report some horrible numbers, whether it'd be a hedge fund or a bank, Dixon said.

But he does not expect any further central bank intervention at the moment, unless markets turn around again, he added.

Market players will watch the Conference Board's report on July leading economic indicators, due at 10 a.m. EDT. Economists in a Reuters survey forecast a median 0.4 percent rise compared with a 0.3 percent fall in the prior month.

Monday's earnings schedule includes results from the number two home improvement chain Lowe's.

There is no doubt that we could potentially be in for a little bit more uncertainty, but I'd like to think that we won't get anything quite as dramatic as we saw last week, Dixon said.

Dow jones Investment U.S.