Stock index futures inch up

Oracle Corp will be in focus after Germany's SAP AG was ordered to pay Oracle $1.3 billion for software theft in a jury verdict that could be the largest-ever for copyright infringement.

European stocks bounced back in morning trade after falling to six-week lows in the previous session, as miners found support in rising metal prices, but lingering concerns over euro zone debt woes weighed on banking shares.

Ireland's teetering government will announce plans on Wednesday to cut welfare spending sharply and raise taxes to help pay for the country's catastrophic banking crisis and meet the terms of an international bailout.

Portugal's biggest unions went on their first joint general strike since 1988 on Wednesday, hoping to weaken the Socialist government's resolve on implementing austerity measures meant to tackle a debt crisis.

Investors' focus was also on the Korean peninsula. South Korea warned North Korea of "enormous retaliation" if it took more aggressive steps after Pyongyang fired scores of artillery shells at a South Korean island in one of the heaviest attacks on its neighbor since the Korean War ended in 1953.

A U.S. aircraft carrier group set off for Korean waters on Wednesday in a move likely to enrage Pyongyang and unsettle its ally, China.

The euro hit a two-month low against the dollar on Wednesday as an earlier recovery fizzled out due to worries the euro zone debt crisis will spread and on renewed concerns about Korean tensions.

Oil edged higher above $81 a barrel on Wednesday, rising from a near week's low in the previous session on expectations of falling inventories in top consumer the United States.

Economic indicators for Wednesday include the Labor Department's release of claims for jobless benefits for the week ended November 20, and the Commerce Department's October durable goods orders as well as personal income and consumption data, all at 1330 GMT.

At 1455 GMT, the Thomson Reuters/University of Michigan final November consumer sentiment index is due. New home sales for October and the Federal Housing Finance Agency Home Price Index for September are expected at 1500 GMT.

U.S. stocks sank on Tuesday as investors dumped risky assets on escalating tensions in the Korean peninsula and as euro-zone debt worries mounted.

The Dow Jones industrial average lost 142.21 points, or 1.27 percent, to 11,036.37. The Standard & Poor's 500 fell 17.11 points, or 1.43 percent, to 1,180.73. The Nasdaq Composite dropped 37.07 points, or 1.46 percent, to 2,494.95.

(Reporting by Blaise Robinson. Editing by Jane Merriman)