Futures up but data weighs; Twitter down, Madison Square jumps

NEW YORK (Reuters) - U.S. stock index futures rose on Tuesday ahead of data on industrial production, home prices and consumer confidence and as the Federal Reserve prepared to begin a two-day meeting on monetary policy.

* Futures cut gains after data showed new orders for capital goods by U.S. businesses recorded their biggest drop in eight months in September. The surprise decline was likely to be temporary as business sentiment has been upbeat more recently.

* The economic schedule also includes S&P/Case-Shiller home prices for August at 9:00 a.m. (1300 GMT) and at 10:00 a.m. (1400 GMT) a gauge of consumer confidence for October.

* The U.S. Federal Reserve begins later on Tuesday a two-day policy meeting, after which it is expected to reinforce expectations it will wait a long while before rising interest rates. The U.S. central bank is all but certain to announce the end of its massive bond-buying stimulus.

* TWITTER (TWTR.NY) shares fell 13.5 percent in premarket trading a day after it posted a slide in a closely watched measure of engagement even as its user base grew in the third quarter.

* Madison Square Garden shares rose 11.7 percent premarket a day after the owner of the New York Knicks and New York Rangers said it was mulling a plan to separate its entertainment business from its media and sports business.

* Receptos Inc shares jumped 36.9 percent premarket after the company said its experimental ulcerative colitis drug met the main goal in a mid-stage trial.

* U.S.-traded shares of Sanofi dropped 8.7 percent premarket after the French drugmaker said sales growth at its leading business of diabetes treatments would stall next year.

Futures snapshot at 8:36 a.m.(1236 GMT):

* S&P 500 e-minis rose 5.5 points, or 0.28 percent, with 187,448 contracts changing hands.

* Nasdaq 100 e-minis gained 14.5 points, or 0.36 percent, in volume of 27,189 contracts.

* Dow e-minis <1YMc1> added 44 points, or 0.26 percent, with 24,978 contracts changing hands.

(Editing by Bernadette Baum)

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