U.S. stock index futures pointed to a higher open on Tuesday as traders eyed an upcoming meeting by the Federal Reserve.
The long awaited Federal Reserve Open Market Committee (FOMC) meeting will take place on Tuesday and Wednesday and if, as widely expected, an interest rate hike is announced it would represent the first rate rise of 2016.
On the data front, the November read on the NFIB Small Business index came in at 98.4, above October's 94.9. Import prices for November fell 0.3 percent.
On the earnings front ABM Inds, Heico and Nordson are all due to report after the bell.
In Europe, the pan-European Stoxx 600 index was around 0.8 percent higher on Tuesday. In Asia, the Shanghai composite in China closed 0.08 percent higher, while the Nikkei in Japan closed 0.5 percent higher.
In oil markets, Brent crude traded at around $56.06 a barrel on Tuesday, up 0.66 percent, while U.S. crude was around $53.12 a barrel, up 0.57 percent.
The International Energy Agency (IEA) released its monthly oil report on Tuesday and forecast global oil demand to increase at a quicker pace than expected in 2016 and 2017 although cited that it was too soon to judge the impact of the joint production cut from OPEC and non-OPEC oil producing nations.