The S&P 500 and the Dow were set to open at record highs on Monday as optimism that interest rates would remain lower for longer lingered, while a surge in commodity prices lifted shares of miners, energy and steel companies.

Copper miner Freeport-McMoran rose 3.4% in premarket trading, while aluminum producer Alcoa gained 3.4% and steelmaker United States Steel Corp was up 2.4% as copper prices touched a record high and aluminum scaled a new peak. 

Chevron Corp, Occidental Petroleum Corp and Exxon Mobil Corp firmed about 1% after a cyber attack on top U.S. pipeline operator Colonial Pipeline shuttered fuel network that transports nearly half of the East Coast's supplies, lifting oil prices. 

Cybersecurity firm FireEye jumped about 5% as industry sources said the company was among those helping Colonial Pipeline to recover from one of the most disruptive digital ransom schemes reported. 

"A lot of the inflation fears are overdone," said Scott Brown, chief economist at Raymond James in St. Petersburg, Florida.

"There is a big difference between commodity price and inflation at the consumer level. It generally takes a gigantic increase in prices of raw materials to even have a tiny effect on consumer price index."

The S&P 500 and the Dow ended at record closing highs on Friday as an unexpected slowdown in monthly jobs growth fueled bets that the U.S. Federal Reserve would remain accommodative for longer.

With latest economic reports depicting that the U.S. economy is not recovering at the explosive pace as previously forecast, inflation numbers and retail sales data this week could chart the next course for U.S. equities.

"Markets are certainly priced to perfection here. We're likely to see some back and forth," Brown added.

At 8:36 a.m. ET, Dow e-minis were up 123 points, or 0.35% and S&P 500 e-minis were up 5.5 points, or 0.13%.

Nasdaq 100 e-minis were down 38.25 points, or 0.28% as megacap technology-related stocks resumed their slide from last week. Facebook Inc, Tesla Inc and Alphabet Inc shed between 0.7% and 1.2%.

Tyson Foods Inc gained 0.7% beat second-quarter revenue estimates as the U.S. meat processor benefited from strong demand for its chicken products from reopened restaurants and hotels across the country. 

The earnings season is in its final stretch with about 87.2% of 439 S&P 500 companies beating estimates for profit, according to Refinitiv data. Analysts expect overall first-quarter earnings to jump 50.4% from a year ago, their strongest growth rate since 2010.

(Reporting by Medha Singh and Sruthi Shankar in Bengaluru; Editing by Maju Samuel) ((Medha.Singh@thomsonreuters.com; within U.S. +1646 223 8780, outside U.S. +91 80 6182 2802; Twitter: https://twitter.com/medhasinghs;))