Stock Futures Rise Before Opening Bell

Stocks appeared poised to bounce back from Tuesday’s sudden selloff before the end of trading, as stock futures edged into positive territory.

The Dow Jones industrial average, S&P 500 and NASDAQ futures were all up a fraction of a percentage point. Futures measure current index values against perceived future performance.

The expected higher open comes as world markets mostly fell. U.S. markets tumbled late Tuesday and Asian and European markets followed that decline, reacting to news that the U.S. government launched criminal and civil investigations of the Gulf of Mexico oil spill.

Housing: A new housing report slated to be released later today is expected to show pending home sales surged in April. However, the increase may not influence investors or be an indicator of future activity because April was the final month for home buyers to qualify for a tax credit. Analysts widely expect housing data to weaken in the coming months because the credit has expired.

Economists surveyed by Thomson Reuters expect the National Association of Realtors pending home sales index to have risen five percent to 108 in April from March’s reading of 102.9. The report is due out at 10am EDT.

World Markets: The CAC 40 in France and FTSE 100 in Britain tumbled more than one percent. Germany’s DAX was down close to one percent by late afternoon.

Asian shares ended the day mixed. The Shanghai Composite in China gained 0.12 percent. Japan’s Nikkei ended the down 1.12 percent while the Hang Seng in Hong Kong fell 0.13 percent.

Currencies & Commodities: The euro continued to its fall to a fresh four-year low as the dollar gained ground in the euro zone. The euro fell an additional 1.43 percent to $1.2154 while British pound gained against the dollar.

The greenback posted moderate gains against the Japanese yen and Chinese yuan.

The price of oil fell 28 cents to $72.30 a barrel for July delivery. Oil prices have fallen more than 16 percent over the last month. Prices fell almost 2 percent Tuesday after a trio of reports showed manufacturing activity slowed in China, Europe and America.

Gold prices slipped $6.80 an ounce to $1,218.00 on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Swiss investment bank UBS said Wednesday that demand for gold exchange-traded funds hasn’t dipped, although the growth in total gold holdings has slowed over the past week.