Wall Street stock futures were slightly lower Tuesday, as caution returned to the market following Monday’s rally.

On today’s U.S. data calendar, the S&P/Case-Shiller home-price index for July, and the Conference Board’s U.S. consumer confidence gauge for September are due for release.

There are no major releases from Statistics Canada.

In today’s earnings news, Walgreen Co. reported a 2% drop in fiscal fourth-quarter profit.

Nike, Micron Technology and Jabil Circuit will report earnings after the close.

In commodities news, oil futures fell 22¢ to US$66.62 a barrel.

Overnight in Asia, markets followed North American stocks higher. The Japanese Nikkei rose 0.9% to 10,100.20, while Hong Kong’s Hang Seng climbed 2.1%, ending higher for the first time in five sessions.

In Europe, the UK’s FTSE 100 Index was off 0.4% at 5,145.97 and Frankfurt’s DAX was down 0.6% at 5,704.46.

The CAC-40 Index in Paris was 0.4% lower at 3,810.32, but banking shares rose after BNP Paribas said it plans to sell US$6.3 billion of shares to repay government aid.

After three consecutive sessions of losses, the benchmark index of the Toronto Stock Exchange finished with strong gains on Monday, led by a surge in financial sector stocks.

The S&P/TSX composite index gained 126.33 points, or 1.1%, to close at 11,338.72.

The financials group gained 2% on Monday, helped by evidence that merger and acquisition activity was beginning to rebound.

The junior S&P/TSX Venture index gained 10.09 points, or 0.8%, to close at 1,269.73.

Equities in New York were also bolstered by the evidence of rising M&A activity on Monday. The main U.S. stock market indices finished higher for the first time in four sessions.

The Dow Jones industrial average rose 124.17 points, or 1.3%, to close at 9,789.36.

The S&P 500 index jumped 18.6 points, or 1.8%, to finish at 1,062.98.

The Nasdaq composite index climbed 39.82 points, or 1.9%, to end at 2,130.74.

IE