Tuesday, Feb 14, 2012

By Barbara Kollmeyer

U.S. stock-market futures edged higher on Wednesday, as investors mulled upbeat economic indicators out of Europe, along with a crop of sovereign rating and outlook downgrades, and awaited earnings and retail-sales data.

Futures for the Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 4 points to 12839, and those on the Standard & Poor's 500-stock index rose 1.9 points to 1351. Nasdaq 100 futures rose 5.25 points to 2573.

Futures initially fell, along with Asia and Europe, after Moody's Investors Service cut the ratings and outlooks of several European countries. Late Monday, Moody's slashed Spain's sovereign-debt rating by two notches, and those of Italy and Portugal by one notch. It also cut the ratings outlook on France, the U.K. and Austria to negative.

But upbeat data from Germany helped turn the action around. Germany's ZEW expectations index for February rose more sharply than analysts expected, leading to the first positive reading since May for the gauge of investor sentiment.

The Stoxx Europe 600 index rose 0.2% to 263.60, after spending much of the morning in the red.

Wall Street stocks closed broadly higher on Monday, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average closing up 72.81 points, or 0.6%, to 12874.04. Gains for the U.S. and other global markets came after Greece's parliament approved austerity measures needed to secure a bailout and prevent default.

Economic data on the U.S. calendar for Tuesday include January retail sales at 8:30 a.m.,EST, and January import prices due at the same time.

"We expect U.S. retail sales to surprise to the upside with a 0.9% increase in January as we saw substantial gains in both chain-store and car sales, indicating that underlying demand is picking up," said analysts at Danske Bank in a note to investors.

At 10 a.m., EST, U.S. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner will testify on President Barack Obama's budget request for fiscal 2013, at the Senate Finance Committee.

The earnings calendar for Tuesday includes Avon Products Inc. (AVP), Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co. (GT) and Marsh & McLennan Cos. (MMC), all due to report before the bell.

Among stocks in focus, shares of Apple Inc. (AAPL) could be active. Citing persons familiar with the matter, Dow Jones Newswires said the company is testing a new, smaller version of its tablet computer, with a screen size of roughly 8 inches. Shares of Apple hit the $500 mark on Monday, setting an all-time high.

Within commodities, crude-oil futures for March delivery rose 70 cents to $101.60 a barrel.

Gold futures for April delivery fell $2.40 to $1,722.50 an ounce.

The ICE dollar index, which measures the dollar against a basket of six other currencies, traded at 79.072 on Tuesday, up from 78.963 in late North American trade on Monday.

-By Barbara Kollmeyer; 34 91 395 8131; AskNewswires@dowjones.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

February 14, 2012 06:15 ET (11:15 GMT)