Stock index futures rose on Wednesday alongside oil prices and the euro, indicating a shift to risky assets ahead of U.S. inflation data.

Investor focus shifted away from a Franco-German meeting that failed to calm fears about the possible spread of Europe's debt crisis and hurt stocks on Tuesday.

S&P 500 futures rose 4.6 points and were above fair value, a formula that evaluates pricing by taking into account interest rates, dividends and time to expiration of the contract. Dow Jones industrial average futures gained 25 points and Nasdaq 100 futures dipped 1.5 points.

The FTSEurofirst 300 <.FTEU3> index of leading European shares shook off earlier losses to trade near break even, even as financial shares <.SX7P> fell after German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Nicolas Sarkozy declared that any thoughts of common euro bond issuance would have to wait.

The euro rose against the dollar, while U.S. crude futures advanced 1.5 percent.

Brewer SABMiller took its $10 billion bid directly to Foster's Group Ltd shareholders, having failed to win over the Australian company's board. The move comes days before Foster's announces its annual results.

Dell Inc shares fell 6.7 percent to $14.75 in premarket trading a day after the computer company posted quarterly revenues slightly below expectations and said sales for the current quarter would be flat.

Inflation comes into the spotlight with the release of U.S. producer prices for July. Economists expect a rise of 0.1 percent after a 0.4 percent fall in June. Excluding food and energy, they are forecast up 0.2 percent after a 0.3 percent gain in June. The data is due at 8:30 a.m. EDT.

Target Corp posted higher quarterly profit early Wednesday as sales perked up toward the end of the quarter, when shoppers started buying clothing and other items for kids heading back to school. Its shares were up 4.4 percent to $51.55 in light premarket trading.

U.S. stocks fell on Tuesday after three days of gains, partly on disappointment about the outcome of the Sarkozy-Merkel meeting.

(Reporting by Rodrigo Campos; editing by Jeffrey Benkoe)

Inflation