Stock futures point to mixed start for Wall St

U.S. stock index futures pointed to a mixed start for Wall Street on Tuesday after U.S. shares ended flat in the previous session as investors took a breather from a four-day rally.

Futures for the S&P 500 and the Dow Jones industrial average were down 0.1 percent, while those for the Nasdaq Composite were up 0.1 percent at 4:05 a.m. EDT.

U.S. President Barack Obama will renominate Ben Bernanke for a second term as chairman of the Federal Reserve on Tuesday, a senior administration official said.

The dollar showed little reaction to the news as market participants had anticipated there was a good chance Bernanke would be given a second term to reassure financial markets as they recover from the global economic crisis, analysts said.

Cisco Systems Inc said it won a deal to supply edge routers to Telstra Corp , Australia's biggest phone company, and that it was boosting the capacity of such routers to help customers more easily handle web video traffic.

U.S. securities regulators are examining weekly meetings at Goldman Sachs , where research analysts offer tips to traders and then to big clients, the Wall Street Journal reported on its website.

Lowe's Companies Inc , the No. 2 U.S. home improvement chain, is making its first foray outside North America through a joint venture with Woolworths Ltd , Australia's largest retailer.

Citigroup has substantially boosted its mortgage modification offers this month in response to the U.S. Treasury's call to speed the process and help prevent foreclosures, the bank's top mortgage executive said.

The White House and U.S. Congress will issue separate budget estimates on Tuesday that could slow President Obama's domestic policy proposals as he faces increased skepticism among lawmakers.

The market will be eyeing the S&P Case-Shiller U.S. home price index for June at 9:00 a.m. EDT, U.S. home prices for June at 10:00 a.m. and U.S. consumer confidence at 10:00 a.m.

Private equity firm TPG has hired three banks to lead manage an IPO of Australia's top department store Myer Group, sources with direct knowledge said, valuing Myer at about $2.1 billion.

Faro Technologies Inc said it will reduce its global workforce by 8 percent and expects to return to profitability as soon as 2010.

Pride International Inc

completed the spin-off of its Gulf of Mexico mat jackup rig operations on Monday as the company reshapes itself to focus on the more lucrative business of deepwater drilling.

European shares <.FTEU3> fell 0.6 percent in early trade on Tuesday after hitting their highest closing level in more than 10 months in the previous session.

In Asia, Japan's Nikkei average <.N225> fell 0.8 percent, while Chinese stocks <.SSEC> lost 2.6 percent.

U.S. stocks ended the day barely changed on Monday as investors took a break from a four-day rally that lifted major indexes to 10-month highs. Wall Street initially charged higher, but a sharp gain in U.S. Treasury debt prices, which drove benchmark yields lower, triggered a sell-off in stocks.

The Dow Jones industrial average <.DJI> rose 3.32 points, or 0.03 percent, to end at 9,509.28. But the Standard & Poor's 500 Index <.SPX> inched down just 0.56 of a point, or 0.05 percent, to 1,025.57 and the Nasdaq Composite Index <.IXIC> shed 2.92 points, or 0.14 percent, to 2,017.98.

(Reporting by Dominic Lau; editing by John Stonestreet)