Stock futures signal weaker Wall Street open

LONDON (Reuters) - Stock futures pointed to a weaker open for equities on Wall Street on Tuesday after ending higher in the previous session, with futures for the S&P 500, for the Dow Jones and for the Nasdaq 100 down 1.0 to 1.3 percent.

ICSC/Goldman Sachs release chain store sales for the week ended September 10 versus the prior week at 1145 GMT (7:45 a.m. ET). In the previous week, sales fell 0.7 percent.

Hewlett-Packard has extended the deadline for its $11.2 billion takeover offer for British software company Autonomy to October 3 after gaining acceptances from only 41.6 percent of shareholders at the first closing date.

At 1230 GMT (8:30 a.m. ET), the Labor Department releases import-export prices for August. Economists forecast a 0.8 percent drop in import prices and a flat reading in export prices. In the prior month, import prices rose 0.3 percent and export prices dropped 0.4 percent.

U.S. conglomerate General Electric Co hopes to double the company's German business in five years through a combination of organic and inorganic growth, a company executive told the Wall Street Journal in an interview.

Redbook releases its Retail Sales Index of department and chain store sales for September versus August at 1255 GMT. In the prior period, sales rose 0.4 percent.

Blackstone Group's Ben Jenkins, a senior managing director and the firm's former top Asia dealmaker, is leaving the firm and returning to New York after four years in the region, two sources said.

Investor's Business Daily and TechnoMetrica Market Intelligence release the IBD consumer confidence index for September at 1400 GMT. The index read 35.8 in August.

At 1800 GMT, the Treasury Department issues monthly budget for August. Economists forecast a $132.0 billion deficit compared with a budget deficit of $129.4 billion in July.

Best Buy is scheduled to announce quarterly results.

European shares rose in early trade on reports that Italy has asked China to make "significant" purchases of Italian debt, but fell later on concerns that it was not a long-term solution for the euro zone debt crisis. The FTSEurofirst 300 <.FTEU3> index of top European shares was down 1.2 percent.

The euro zone's leaders need to show markets they are taking responsibility for its debt crisis and work out how to tally monetary union with budget policy, Spanish press reported U.S. President Barack Obama as saying.

U.S. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner makes a one-day trip to Poland this week for an unprecedented meeting with euro zone finance ministers as growing fears of a potential Greek debt default rip into Europe's banking sector.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel said on Tuesday that Europe was doing everything in its power to prevent Greece from defaulting on its debt and cautioned that an exit from the euro zone would unleash "domino effects" and should be avoided at all costs.

The Dow Jones industrial average <.DJI> finished up 68.99 points, or 0.63 percent, at 11,061.12. The Standard & Poor's 500 Index <.SPX> was up 8.04 points, or 0.70 percent, at 1,162.27. The Nasdaq Composite Index <.IXIC> ended 27.10 points higher, or 1.10 percent, at 2,495.09.

(Reporting by Atul Prakash; Editing by Hans-Juergen Peters)