Futures rise after S&P 500 snaps three-day decline

(Reuters) - U.S. stock index futures were higher on Wednesday, a day after the S&P 500 snapped a three-day losing streak as a selloff in the equities market took a breather.

* U.S. stocks ended flat on Tuesday as financial and consumer staples shares bounced.

* Applications for U.S. home mortgages rose last week, while interest rates hit their highest level since November 2014, data released on Wednesday showed.

* Investors continue to await on the timing of the first rate hike since 2006 by the U.S. Federal Reserve as economic data points to a recovering U.S. economy, which had come to a standstill in the first quarter.

* European shares also snapped a six-day losing streak, with German equities rebounding from their lowest level since February as traders said the recent sell-off had gone too far.

* U.S. bond prices slipped as they were also hit by this week's flood of supply, sending the 10-year U.S. benchmark bond yield to an eight-month high of 2.458 percent .

* The U.S. dollar index <.DXY> hit a three-week low, with analysts pointing to debate around the G7 summit regarding the speed of the dollar's rise as the U.S. prepares to end years of cheap central-bank cash.

* HCC Insurance Holdings shares soared 32.5 percent to $75.14 in premarket trading after Tokio Marine Holdings <8766.T> said it had agreed to buy U.S. specialty insurer for $7.5 billion.

* Netflix was up 1.4 percent to $656 a day after shareholders approved a massive increase in the number of shares the company is authorized to issue, the first step toward a possible stock split.

Futures snapshot at 7:29 a.m. ET:

* S&P 500 e-minis were up 7 points, or 0.34 percent, with 144,700 contracts traded.

* Nasdaq 100 e-minis were up 14.25 points, or 0.32 percent, on volume of 20,387 contracts.

* Dow e-minis <1YMc1> were up 53 points, or 0.3 percent, with 20,600 contracts changing hands.

(Reporting by Tanya Agrawal; Editing by Saumyadeb Chakrabarty)

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