Stock index futures pared earlier gains to trade flat on Tuesday following comments from Germany's Chancellor that the country is opposed to phrase in a final draft for the region's summit.

The comments, which heightened concerns that the summit may not produce fruitful results to tackle the region's debt crisis, offset the market's optimism after strong earnings from blue chip companies.

Germany opposes a phrase in a draft conclusion for Wednesday's EU summit that calls for the European Central Bank to continue buying bonds in the secondary market.

Germany's Angela Merkel added that Germany did not want a declaration from politicians telling the ECB what to do.

According to a draft obtained by Reuters, euro zone leaders will call on the ECB to continue with its non-standard measures in current exceptional circumstances, a phrase that EU sources said referred to the ECB's purchase of the bonds from countries like Italy and Spain.

S&P 500 futures fell 3 points and were below 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 lost 22 points, and Nasdaq 100 futures added fell 1.25 points.

Chemical maker and Dow component DuPont

reported a 23 percent jump in third-quarter profit on Tuesday, helped by price hikes and strong demand for a key paint pigment. The stock rose 2.8 percent to $47.40 in premarket trade.

Xerox Corp's profit and revenue rose in the third quarter as the company signed more outsourcing services deals. The stock rose 3.1 percent to $8.25.

About 72 percent of reported companies have beaten their earnings estimates while 61 percent of them have exceeded their revenue forecasts, so far, said Jonathan Golub, chief U.S. equity strategist at UBS in New York.

But 3M Co shares fell 5.6 percent to $77.55 in premarket. The company reported a 1 percent decline in quarterly earnings, falling well short of analyst expectations due to weakness in the electronics market and invenstory-reduction efforts taking place among customers.

Amazon.com Inc will report earnings later in the day.

On Monday, Texas Instruments said a drop in demand for its chips due to economic weakness would see revenue come under further pressure this quarter.

Netflix Inc shares fell 35 percent to $77.32 in premarket after the top video rental company said it lost more customers than anticipated.

Economic news will include the U.S. Case-Shiller home price index due at 9:00 a.m. EDT and U.S. Conference Board consumer confidence and U.S. Richmond Fed manufacturing figures at 10:00 a.m. EDT.

Morgan Stanley has sold its mortgage-servicing business SCI Services Inc to Ocwen Financial Corp .

Nearly 35 percent of News Corp shareholders voted against the re-election to the board of James Murdoch, casting doubt over whether he has the credibility and support to succeed father Rupert as head of the media empire.

U.S. stocks ended higher on Monday as a flurry of merger activity and strong earnings from Caterpillar boosted investor sentiment and kept the three-week rally intact.

Equities have risen on hopes a resolution to Europe's sovereign debt crisis is on the horizon and a reduced likelihood of a U.S. recession after stronger-than-expected corporate results and economic data.

(Reporting by Angela Moon; Editing by Theodore d'Afflisio)