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Empresas y finanzas

Futures point to higher open for Wall Street


    NEW YORK (Reuters) - Stock index futures pointed to a higher open for Wall Street on Tuesday, the day after U.S. shares broke through key levels.

    At 5:08 a.m. ET, futures for the Dow Jones, S&P 500 and Nasdaq were up between 0.3 and 0.4 percent.

    The FTSEurofirst 300 index of leading European shares was up 0.4 percent at 1,053.36 points, and had hit a five-week intraday high, with UBS leading banks higher after its results beat forecasts.

    Oil giant BP said it planned to offset the entire cost of its Gulf of Mexico oil spill against its tax bill, reducing future contributions to U.S. tax coffers by almost $10 billion. BP took a pretax provision of $32.2 billion in its accounts for the second quarter, triggering a $17 billion loss. It named American Bob Dudley as its next CEO, replacing Tony Hayward.

    After Monday's huge jump in new home sales, the S&P/Case-Shiller report may get a bit more attention in the markets than usual. The 20-city home price index for May is expected to be up 4.0 percent from a year earlier, compared with April's increase of 3.8 percent, a Reuters survey found.

    Consumer confidence figures for July are expected to have fallen to 51 from 52.9. The data from the Conference Board will be watched more closely than usual because of the slump in sentiment shown in the University of Michigan survey 10 days earlier.

    Chemicals giant DuPont reports second-quarter earnings which investors hope will show that the company is more able to rely on product innovations rather than economic recovery to fuel earnings.

    Others due to report include Nabors Industries and Office Depot .

    An upbeat outlook from FedEx , coupled with encouraging home sales, lifted U.S. stocks on Monday,

    The Standard & Poor's 500 Index rose 1.1 percent, closing above the 1,100 level for the second straight session, which some investors feel is of key importance because it represented the top of a trading range the benchmark index had failed to break several times in the past month.

    It also rose above its 200-day moving average of 1,113.71. The Dow Jones industrial average gained 1 percent. The Nasdaq Composite Index advanced 1.2 percent.

    Shares of Fluor rose 1.8 percent after the bell on Monday after the company reported results and said it raised guidance.

    (Reporting by Brian Gorman; Editing by Jon Loades-Carter)