Stocks futures turn higher after Best Buy results

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Stock index futures rose on Tuesday, erasing earlier losses, after shares of No. 1 consumer electronics chain Best Buy jumped following earnings and revenue that topped expectations.

Futures had started off weak on news that Japan's sovereign rating was cut by Fitch as a political stalemate dimmed chances the country could curb its snowballing debt.

But the market trimmed losses to trade higher after Best Buy Co Inc posted earnings, excluding items, of 72 cents a share, up from 65 cents a share a year ago, and higher than Wall Street's expectation of 59 cents share. The stock was up 7 percent at $19.39 in premarket trade.

S&P 500 futures added 4.1 points and were above fair value, a formula that evaluates pricing by taking into account interest rates, dividends and time to expiration on the contract. Dow Jones industrial average futures gained 13 points, and Nasdaq 100 futures rose 9.5 points.

Fitch lowered Japan's long-term foreign currency rating to A plus from AA. It cut the local currency rating to A plus from AA minus. Both were cut with a negative outlook.

The Paris-based Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development also forecast that global growth would ease to 3.4 percent this year from 3.6 percent in 2011.

In economic data, Redbook releases at 8:55 a.m. ET (1255 GMT) its Retail Sales Index of department and chain store sales for May versus April. In the prior period, sales fell 0.8 percent.

The National Association of Realtors (NAR) releases at 10:00 a.m. ET (1400 GMT) existing home sales for April. Economists forecast a 4.60 million annualized unit total, versus 4.48 million in March.

Nasdaq OMX faces short-term costs from its botched handling of Facebook shares on their first day of trading on Friday, but longer-term repercussions could be more expensive as it struggles to restore its image. Initially, the exchange said it planned to set aside $13 million to resolve bad trades; even if all of that was used, the cost would be minimal compared with the $387 million in net income it reported last year.

In the run-up to Facebook's $16 billion IPO, Morgan Stanley , the lead underwriter on the deal, unexpectedly delivered some negative news to major clients: The bank's consumer Internet analyst, Scott Devitt, trimmed his revenue forecasts for the company.

Facebook shares were off 2.2 percent to $33.27 in premarket trade.

The Asian prime brokerage units of Credit Suisse and Bank of America Corp gained market share over the past year as Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley , the top two industry players, lost hedge fund clients and assets, a survey showed.

China will fast-track approvals for infrastructure investment to combat a slowdown in the economy, a state-backed newspaper reported on Tuesday, underlining a call by Premier Wen Jiabao for policies to maintain growth.

Stocks rose more than 1 percent on Monday, with the S&P 500 snapping a six-day losing streak, as equities rebounded from their biggest weekly drop in almost six months.

(Editing by Dave Zimmerman)

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