U.S. stock index futures point to lower open

U.S. stock index futures pointed to a mostly lower open on Tuesday, on profit taking, as the market gives back some of the previous session's strong gains.

At 4:43 a.m. EDT, futures for both the Dow Jones and S&P 500 were down 0.2 percent; those for the Nasdaq were flat.

Pending sales of previously owned homes are expected to have risen 0.5 percent in April, according to a Reuters poll. The National Association of Realtors Pending Home Sales Index rose 3.2 percent to 84.6 in March. * There are no major U.S. companies set to report.

Improving confidence may lessen U.S. banks' interest in programs designed by the government to reduce toxic assets on their balance sheets, U.S. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner told CNBC during a visit to Beijing.

SanDisk Corp , readying a major foray into the booming market for notebooks or mini-laptop computers, launched memory chip products targeted at users of the light, portable PCs.

The FTSEurofirst 300 <.FTEU3> index of top European shares was down 0.2 percent at 884.51 points. Some markets, such as Switzerland, did not trade on Monday and were catching up with the rally in that session, when the index gained 2.8 percent.

U.S. stocks rose on Monday, sending the S&P 500 <.SPX> to its highest close in seven months, as reassuring economic data reinforced hopes that demand will stabilize, while General Motors' long-expected bankruptcy filing ended uncertainty about the automaker's fate.

However, American Express Co and JPMorgan Chase & Co fell in after-hours trading on plans to raise equity.

(Reporting by Brian Gorman; Editing by Hans Peters)