U.S. stock futures clawed back most of their early losses on Tuesday in a volatile Asian session as regional equity markets recovered from their lows right before Europe's trading day began.

S&P 500 futures expiring in September were off 0.2 percent at 2:06 a.m. EDT after sliding as much 3 percent in Asian morning trade.

The cash index had plunged 6.7 percent on Monday on heavy volume on growing fears of a recession, in the first trading session after Standard & Poor's cut the U.S. triple-A credit rating.

(Reporting by Kevin Plumberg; Editing by Kim Coghill)