Stock Futures Mixed Ahead of Confidence, House Price Data

NEW YORK (TheStreet) -- Stock futures were trading mixed Tuesday as the markets awaited the latest reports on U.S. consumer confidence and house prices.

Futures for the Dow Jones Industrial Average were rising 13 points, or 15.34 points above fair value, at 12,444. Futures for the S&P 500 were up by 0.7 points, or 0.17 points below fair value, at 1307. Futures for the Nasdaq 100 were rising 5 points, or 4.01 points above fair value, at 2531.

Stocks were hammered Monday as investors fled riskier assets on concerns about Europe's ability to address its escalating debt problems.

The latest batch of worrisome headlines from across the pond included Cyprus reportedly asking for a bailout, the resignation of Greece's finance minister and Spain making a formal request for funding to solidify its banking system.

The Conference Board on Tuesday is expected by economists to report that U.S. consumer confidence declined to 63.8 in June after falling to 64.9 in May, hurt by the tepid labor market, weaker equity prices and also to the uncertainties surrounding the looming fiscal cliff. The report will be issued at 10 a.m. EDT.

The Case-Shiller 20-city Index of changes in home prices for April will be released at 9 a.m. Economists, on average, estimate the index fell 2.5% from a year ago after a 2.6% decline the month before.

In Europe, German market research group GfK predicted Tuesday that its consumer sentiment index for Germany will improve in July for the first time in five months, rising to 5.8 from 5.7 in June, as an improvement in income expectations helped offset some of worries about the economic impact of the eurozone turbulence.

The FTSE in London was up 0.11% and the DAX in Germany was up 0.14%.

The Spanish Treasury sold €3.077 billion ($3.850 billion) of three-month and six-month treasury bills Tuesday at much heftier borrowing costs than the prior month as investors grew more and more concerned that the country will have trouble handling its debt as it requests financial aid for its shaky banking sector.

The Hong Kong Hang Seng index closed up by 0.45% and the Nikkei in Japan settled down by 0.81%.