Stock futures rise after ECB says may speed up bond buying

(Reuters) - U.S. stock index futures were higher on Tuesday after the European central bank suggested it would speed up its bond-buying program.

* Investors are also awaiting key U.S. housing data that could feed into the Federal Reserve's decision on the timing of an interest rate increase.

* U.S. housing starts are expected to have risen to an annual pace of 1.02 million units in April from a 926,000 in March. The data is expected at 8:30 a.m. ET (1230 GMT).

* The Dow Jones industrial average <.DJI> and S&P 500 <.SPX> ended at record highs on Monday.

* Dow component Apple's shares rose 0.43 percent to $130.75 in premarket trading, a day after investor Carl Icahn said the stock was "still dramatically undervalued".

* Wal-Mart fell 2.21 percent to $78.15 after the company reported lower-than-expected U.S. same-store sales growth.

* Home Depot shares rose slightly to $114.39 after the company reported a better-than-expected quarterly profit.

* Urban Outfitters was down 16.5 percent at $34 after it reported quarterly sales that fell short of market estimates.

* Autodesk and TJX Cos report quarterly results later on Tuesday.

* JPMorgan fell 0.11 percent to $66.35 ahead of the company's annual meeting in Detroit.

Futures snapshot at 7:22 a.m. ET (1122 GMT): * S&P 500 e-minis were up 4.25 points, or 0.2 percent, with 115,550 contracts traded. * Nasdaq 100 e-minis were up 15.5 points, or 0.34 percent, on volume of 13,974 contracts. * Dow e-minis <1YMc1> were up 45 points, or 0.25 percent, with 19,116 contracts changing hands.

(Additional reporting by Tanya Agrawal in Bengaluru; Editing by Saumyadeb Chakrabarty)

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