Stock index futures were little changed on Tuesday, a day after the S&P 500 hit its highest closing level in eight months and ahead of one of the busiest days of this quarter's earnings season.

* Chemical maker DuPont got the ball rolling posting a more than 60 percent drop in quarterly profit, but said cost-cutting measures had helped it cope with weak global demand. Its shares gained 1 percent before the bell.

* The U.S. Federal Reserve has plenty of tools to push borrowing costs up when the economy recovers, Chairman Ben Bernanke said. Bernanke gives his semi-annual testimony on the economic outlook and monetary policy before the House Financial Services Committee at 10 a.m. EST.

* Data on tap for Tuesday includes the ICSC/Goldman Sachs release of chain store sales for the week ended July 18 versus the prior week at 7:45 a.m. Redbook is set to release its Retail Sales Index of department and chain store sales for July versus June at 8:55 a.m.

* S&P 500 futures were up 0.3 points and were slightly 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 edged up 10 points, and Nasdaq 100 futures were unchanged.

* In one of the busiest days of the earnings schedule, bellwethers including BlackRock , Apple Inc , Yahoo , Advanced Micro Devices , Caterpillar , United Technologies , Coca-Cola and are due to report results.

* After the closing bell on Monday, chipmaker Texas Instruments Inc posted a stronger-than-expected operating second-quarter profit, but its stock slipped 1.1 percent to $23.35.

* U.S. stocks jumped on Monday, driving the Standard & Poor's 500 Index <.SPX> to an eight-month closing high. The Dow Jones industrial average <.DJI> shot up 104.21 points, or 1.2 percent, the S&P gained 10.75 points, or 1.1 percent and the Nasdaq Composite Index <.IXIC> rose 22.68 points, or 1.2 percent.

(Reporting by Rodrigo Campos; Editing by Theodore d'Afflisio)

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