Stock futures rise on continued Europe hopes

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Stock index futures rose on Wednesday, indicating stocks will climb for a fourth straight session as investors remained encouraged by progress toward plans to ease the euro zone's debt woes.

International auditors headed to Greece to scrutinize new austerity measures they must endorse for Athens to get their next tranche of aid.

Also, efforts to solidify a euro zone rescue fund and alleviate the region's sovereign debt crisis lifted stocks on Tuesday for a third consecutive session and came after four straight days of losses for the benchmark S&P 500.

Market volatility could remain as traders react to European headlines and attempt to gauge the commitment of governments and institutions as they work to prevent a Greek default.

S&P 500 futures rose 7.7 points and were above fair value, a formula that evaluates pricing by taking into account interest rates, dividends and time to expiration of the contract. Dow Jones industrial average futures gained 95 points, and Nasdaq 100 futures added 15.25 points.

Investors will also eye data on August durable goods orders from the Commerce Department, due at 8:30 a.m. EDT. Economists in a Thomson Reuters survey expected orders to be unchanged in August versus a 4.1 percent rise in July.

McCormick & Co Inc and Family Dollar Stores Inc both posted quarterly earnings early Wednesday, with Darden Restaurants Inc also scheduled to report.

Asian shares mostly lost ground and oil and metals fell, with copper down more than 4 percent, as a rebound in riskier assets ran out of steam.

(Reporting by Chuck Mikolajczak; editing by Jeffrey Benkoe)