Stock index futures rose on Tuesday on investor relief over a well-received Italian bond auction that showed the highly indebted country still had access to capital markets.

* Italy sold debt in volumes close to the upper end of its target, but borrowing costs continued to soar. European stocks reversed course to trade higher. For details, see

* S&P 500 futures rose 8.2 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 gained 57 points, and Nasdaq 100 futures added 8 points.

* French bank stocks BNP Paribas and Societe Generale were down after a French newspaper reported Standard & Poor's could change the outlook for France's triple-A rating to negative within the next 10 days.

* Also, Moody's said it could downgrade the subordinated debt of 87 banks across 15 European Union nations on concerns that governments would be too cash-strapped to bail them out.

* Late Monday, Fitch revised its outlook on the U.S. credit rating to negative, citing the failure of a special congressional committee to reach an deficit-reduction agreement. Fitch gave the United States until 2013 to come up with a credible plan to tackle its ballooning budget deficit or risk a downgrade of the country's coveted AAA rating.

* In company news, American Airlines parent AMR Corp filed for Chapter 11 reorganization. The shares tumbled 97 percent to 64 cents in premarket trade.

* On the macro front, investors awaited the Standard & Poor's/Case-Shiller home price index for September, due for release at 9 a.m. EST. index 20-city index is expected to show no changes in September.

* Also the Conference Board's November consumer confidence is due at 10 a.m. EST. The report is forecast to show a reading of 44.0, up from 39.8.

* U.S. stocks rebounded from seven days of losses on Monday as investors used the latest effort by European leaders to resolve the region's debt crisis as an opportunity to cover short positions.

(Reporting by Angela Moon; editing by Jeffrey Benkoe)

BNP Paribas