U.S. stock index futures pointed to a higher open on Wall Street on Wednesday, with futures for the S&P 500 up 0.3 percent, Dow Jones futures up 0.25 percent and Nasdaq 100 futures up 0.35 percent.

Oil held steady above $74, buoyed by industry data showing a sharp drawdown in U.S. crude stocks and an unexpected fall in gasoline supply, but the firm dollar limited gains. The greenback remained broadly supported after touching two-month peaks against the yen in holiday-thinned trade, underpinned by firm U.S. housing data and higher U.S. bond yields.

Micron Technology Inc will be in focus after it posted its first quarterly profit in nearly three years as rising memory chip prices lifted its sales beyond Wall Street's expectations. Shares of Micron rose about 1 percent in after-market trading on Tuesday.

Research in Motion Ltd will also be in the spotlight after North and South American users of BlackBerry smartphone suffered widespread delays in message services on Tuesday, just a week after another outage struck the popular corporate network.

Ford Motor and Zhejiang Geely have addressed most of the big issues in the pending sale of Ford's Volvo car unit to the Chinese automaker, a source with knowledge of the talks said on Wednesday, paving the way for the biggest acquisition of a foreign automaker by a Chinese company.

Red Hat Inc's reported results that beat Wall Street estimates as an improving economy and reviving corporate spending fueled sales of its business software, sending shares up almost 7 percent after-hours.

Corporate uniform maker Cintas Corp said on Tuesday its fiscal second-quarter profit rose 5.9 percent, but missed Wall Street expectations. Shares in the largest U.S. uniform supplier fell more than 7 percent to $27.50 in after-hours trade.

Finish Line Inc said Tuesday its same-store sales climbed 4.9 percent in the three weeks to December 20 in a sign of revived demand for the retailer's athletic shoes and apparel, sending its shares up 7.5 percent in after-hours trading on the Nasdaq.

European stocks were up 0.4 percent in morning trade, trading at 14-month high, led by banks and energy shares.

On the macro front, data on tap for Wednesday includes personal spending and income for November, as well as new home sales and the final reading of the University of Michigan's December consumer confidence.

The S&P 500 logged another 14-month high on Tuesday as stocks rallied on a surge in existing home sales, which indicated more stabilization in housing and boosted optimism about the economic recovery.

The Dow Jones industrial average <.DJI> rose 50.79 points, or 0.49 percent, to end at 10,464.93. The Standard & Poor's 500 Index <.SPX> added 3.97 points, or 0.36 percent, to 1,118.02. The Nasdaq Composite Index <.IXIC> gained 15.01 points, or 0.67 percent, to close at 2,252.67.

So far this year, the S&P 500 index has gained 23.8 percent, on track to record its best annual performance since 2003.

(Reporting by Blaise Robinson; Editing by Hans Peters)

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