U.S. stock index futures pointed to a higher open on Tuesday as retail sales advanced at their fastest clip in over three years while producer prices rose more than twice as much as expected in August.

On the anniversary of the collapse of Lehman Brothers , the U.S. Treasury Department is still dealing with the fallout of the financial crisis. For details, see

The government is talking to Citigroup Inc about how to sell the roughly one-third stake it acquired as part of its bailout of the bank, Bloomberg reported, citing people familiar with the matter. Citi shares were down 1.3 percent to $4.46 in premarket trading.

August retail sales jumped 2.7 percent compared with a 0.1 percent fall in July, the U.S. Commerce Department said, while economists expected a 2.0 percent rise. Excluding automobiles, sales rose 1.1 percent versus the estimate of a 0.4 percent increase.

The August producer price index (PPI) gained 1.7 percent, while economists looked for an 0.8 percent increase. Excluding volatile food and energy items, the PPI rose 0.2 percent, compared with the estimate of a 0.1 percent increase.

An uptick in consumer spending is seen as crucial for any economic recovery to continue.

All of these numbers are quite good. I also like the lack of revisions because it means we're not just getting decent numbers, we're also not looking back and saying stuff we had actually wasn't as positive as we thought, said Peter Kenny, managing director at Knight Equity Markets in Jersey City, New Jersey.

S&P 500 futures rose 2.2 point 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 gained 20 points, and Nasdaq 100 futures fell 1 point.

Best Buy Co Inc shares slipped 0.3 percent to $40.30 in premarket trade after the electronics retailer reported second-quarter earnings that were shy of estimates, although the company raised its full-year outlook.

EBay Inc rose 4.2 percent to $24.81 after Piper Jaffray upgraded the online auctioneer to overweight from underweight, based on its quarterly eCommerce survey.

MasterCard Inc's finance chief said the volume of processed transactions fell 8 percent in July and August in the United States, signaling consumers are using less credit to make purchases. MasterCard shares rose 1 percent to $209.99 in before the bell. [ID:nN15546192]

Kraft Foods Inc , North Americas's biggest food group, rose 0.3 percent to $26.18 after it announced plans to hold talks in the coming weeks with British bid target Cadbury Plc that may lead to a new offer for the second biggest global candy and chocolate maker.

(Reporting by Chuck Mikolajczak; additional reporting by Ryan Vlastelica; editing by Jeffrey Benkoe)

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