Stocks headed for a higher open on Tuesday as renewed U.S. dollar weakness lifted shares of natural resource companies, while a rebound in May housing starts added to signals that the economy could be stabilizing.

One day after Wall Street logged its worst slide in a month, investors got fresh signs that the recession was moderating. Additionally, inflationary pressures remained contained after May producer prices rose less than expected. For details, see

Among natural resource stocks rising before the bell, aluminum producer Alcoa Inc , gained 2.4 percent to $11.48, while U.S. Steel Corp shot up 2.3 percent to $37.94.

I think the housing starts were better than expected, but I'm not sure that's good news, said Jeff Kleintop, chief market strategist at LPL Financial in Boston.

It might mean more inventory coming to the market over the next several months. But then, housing starts are down over 80 percent from the peak, so I think we can stand a little bounce today.

S&P 500 futures rose 3.60 points and were above fair value, a formula that evaluates pricing by taking into account interest rates, dividends and time to expiration on the contract. Dow Jones industrial average futures climbed 27 points, while Nasdaq 100 futures rose 7.75 points.

Even so, there was likely to be some caution after Best Buy Co Inc posted a slide in same-store sales, a key measure of retail performance, overshadowing a quarterly profit that came in above analysts' estimates.

Best Buy shares dropped 3 percent to $37.48 before the bell.

In Monday's light-volume session, the indexes tallied their biggest one-day percentage losses since mid-May. But the broad S&P 500 is still up 36.5 percent from the 12-year closing low of March 9.

(Additional reporting by Ryan Vlastelica; Editing by Padraic Cassidy)