U.S. stock futures rose on Tuesday, as foreign banks advanced in overseas trade and as mergers-and-acquisitions activity drew renewed attention following Dow Chemical's move to go ahead with a stalled buyout and reports Genentech was on the verge of being fully acquired.
S&P 500 futures rose 11.2 points to 687.10 and Nasdaq 100 futures added 13.25 points to 1,060.20. Dow industrial futures advanced 97 points.
U.S. stocks fell to fresh multi-year lows on Monday, with technology stocks in particular losing ground. The tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite fell 25 points, or 2%, and the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 79 points and the S&P 500 lost 6 points.
Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke at 8:30 a.m. Eastern is due to make a speech on the topic of financial reform and systemic risk.
Meanwhile, U.S. officials are examining what fresh steps that may need to take to stabilize Citigroup barely a week after the third rescue of the bank, The Wall Street Journal reported, citing people familiar with the matter.
Also on the docket for Tuesday are wholesale inventories for January. Overseas, China reported its first decline in consumer prices since 1996.
Oil futures held around $47 a barrel, while gold futures slipped $6 an ounce. The dollar fell vs. major rivals, notably the euro.
Rohm & Haas may advance after reaching a tentative deal to be bought by Dow Chemical for the original price of $15.3 billion in cash, or $78 a share. The two top shareholders in Rohm & Haas put up $3 billion to help close the deal, and Dow's banks agreed looser financing terms.
Dow Chemical slipped to $6.09 from $6.33 in Frankfurt.
After the Merck-Schering Plough deal on Monday, attention will turn to Genentech with reports the biotech is close to agreeing to a $95-a-share offer from majority owner Roche to buy out remaining shares.
Results from Bacardi maker Brown-Forman and grocer Kroger are due.
Wal-Mart Stores the world's top retailer and a component of the Dow Jones Industrial Average, was downgraded to hold from buy at Citi, with the broker saying a bill before the House of Representatives would greatly simplify the process of union formation, limit the ability of employers to caution employees against unionization and impose several restrictions on the bargaining process.
Another Dow component, Walt Disney was downgraded to sell from neutral by Pali Capital, with the broker saying "everything is going wrong at the same time" and seeing continued deterioration in the theme park business.
Led by a recovery by HSBC Holdings Asia stocks mostly advanced on Tuesday, with the Hang Seng up 3.1% in Hong Kong, though the Nikkei 225 fell 0.4% to a fresh 26-year low.
In Europe, banks also recovered, with the German DAX 30 up 1.1% and the U.K. FTSE 100 up 0.2%. Daimler also rose on a Morgan Stanley upgrade.
