In the meantime, the market will parse the Institute for Supply Management's report on the service sector during July. That will be issued at 10 a.m.
Investors are also keeping an eye on oil prices, which plunged to their lowest level in three months on Monday as the threat from Tropical Storm Edouard weakened. Crude has closed lower in six of the last nine sessions and is 18 percent off its all-time high above $147 reached July 11.
Light, sweet crude fell $1.50 to $119.91 in premarket electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange.
Oil's retreat has eased some of Wall Street's concerns about consumer spending, which accounts for more than two-thirds of the nation's economy.
In early Tuesday's trading, Dow Jones Industrial average futures rose 83, or 0.74 percent, to 11,354.
Standard & Poor's 500 index futures rose 8.5, or 0.68 percent, to 1,257.30, and Nasdaq 100 index futures added 14.25, or 0.79 percent, to 1,826.
Bonds rose. The yield on the benchmark 10-year Treasury note, which moves opposite its prices, fell to 3.96 percent from late Monday's 3.97 percent.
The dollar traded mostly higher against other major currencies, while gold prices fell.
In corporate news, Procter & Gamble Co., maker of Tide detergent and Gillette razors, said Tuesday its fiscal fourth-quarter profit jumped 33 percent, boosted by price increases, overseas sales and tax benefits.
In other earnings, Archer Daniels Midland Co. reported a 61 percent plunge in fourth-quarter profit, but said revenues soared amid higher prices for commodities like wheat and corn. D.R. Horton Inc., the nation's largest homebuilder, posted a narrower fiscal third-quarter loss as charges to write down the value of property declined.
Overseas, Japan's Nikkei stock average fell 18.52, or 0.14 percent, to 12,914.66. Britain's FTSE 100 rose 63.80, or 1.20 percent, 5,384. Germany's DAX index rose 138.08, or 2.17 percent, to 6,487.89, and France's CAC-40 rose 61.09, or 1.43 percent, to 4,341.72.
