MARKET SNAPSHOT: U.S. Stocks: Futures Up Ahead Of Home Prices, Consumer Confidence

By Barbara Kollmeyer, MarketWatch

MADRID (MarketWatch)--U.S. stock futures rose on Tuesday, as another fall in eurozone inflation put pressure on the European Central Bank ahead of this week's meeting and investors waited for updates on home prices and consumer confidence.

Futures for the Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJZ4) rose 49 points to 17,029. Those for the S&P 500 index (SPZ4) added 6.2 points to 1,975.70 and for the Nasdaq-100 index (NDZ5), futures were up 16 points, or 0.4%, to 4,051.50.

Major indexes finished with mild losses on Monday, recovering from an earlier rout, helped in part by a wave of mergers and acquisition news. Tuesday marks the end of the month and the third quarter, where the S&P 500 has seen a fall of 1.3% and gain of 0.9%, respectively. Why you should ignore October crash warnings

All gravy up to week's end: Of Tuesday's data, the S&P/Case-Shiller home-price index for July could get the most eyeballs. Due at 9 a.m. Eastern Time, economists expect annual price growth to hit an almost 2-year low. Also coming, consumer confidence for September at 10 a.m. Eastern.

Federal Reserve Gov. Jerome Powell remarks on a panel on 'Government debt management at the zero lower bound' at the Brookings Institution at 10:45 a.m. Eastern.

Stock futures rose after data showed eurozone inflation hit a five-year low in September, and disappointing German jobless data, both which could add pressure for the European Central Bank to do the market's bidding and launch full-scale quantitative easing in the near term. The ECB meets on Thursday, but economists widely expect the bank to keep policy on hold for now and instead provide details on its program for purchasing asset-backed securities, which was announced at the September meeting.

The Thursday meeting is one of the biggest events of the week for markets, and the other is Friday's nonfarm payrolls, where markets want to see strong, but not too strong, jobs growth.

Stocks to watch: Move (MOVE) leapt 17% in premarket on after News Corp. (NWSA) (NWS) said it would buy the online real-estate business in an all-cash deal for $21 a share. News Corp. owns MarketWatch, the publisher of this report.

Ford (F) may see premarket pressure after cutting its full-year earnings outlook on expectations it will lose $1.2 billion in Europe this year.

Walgreen(WAG) is due to report results ahead of Tuesday's market open and is projected to post fourth-quarter earnings of 74 cents a share, according to a consensus survey by FactSet.

Supervalu (SVU) said late Monday it found more data-capturing malware at stores.See: After Hours

Catalyst Pharmaceutical Partners (CPRX) shares surged 18% in late trade Monday after the biotech said a late-stage study showed its Firdapse treatment benefited sufferers of an autoimmune disorder that causes muscle weakness.

DreamWorks Animation (DWA) fell 8% in late trading after a report of cooling acquisition talks between the animation studio and Japan's SoftBank .

Other markets: Stock futures shook off another 1.2% loss for Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index as pro-democracy protests continued, though peacefully, though many worried about a possible crackdown. Europe stocks pushed higher on the heels of downbeat data. The euro (EURUSD) pushed lower against the dollar after eurozone inflation data.

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