Futures for the Dow Jones industrial average, the S&P 500 and the Nasdaq 100 rose 0.4 to 0.5 percent, pointing to a firmer start on Wall Street on Wednesday, after steep losses in the previous session.

Automatic Data Processing (ADP) releases its June employment report at 1215 GMT (8:15 a.m. EDT). Economists in a Reuters survey expect the report to show that 60,000 jobs were created in June versus 55,000 new jobs in May.

At 1230 GMT (8:30 a.m. EDT), the Institute for Supply Management-New York releases June index of regional business activity. In May, the index read 449.3.

The Institute of Supply Management Chicago releases at 1345 GMT (9:45 a.m. EDT) Chicago index of manufacturing activity. Economists in a Reuters survey forecast a reading of 59.0 in the month compared with 59.7 in May.

Sanofi-Aventis is to buy U.S. biotech TargeGen Inc., which is developing treatments against blood diseases, for as much as $560 million as part of the French drugmaker's drive to boost its cancer treatments.

The season's first Atlantic hurricane is disrupting cleanup of BP's massive oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, delaying plans to boost containment capacity and threatening to push more oily water onshore.

The Mortgage Bankers Association releases at 1100 GMT (7 a.m. EDT) Weekly Mortgage Market Index for the week ended June 25 versus the prior week.

U.S. Democrats are mounting a final push to send President Barack Obama their landmark overhaul of financial regulations, but the death of a colleague and cold feet among Republican allies could postpone a final victory.

Shares of General Mills fell 2.2 percent to $36.09 in extended trading on Tuesday after the company reported its fourth-quarter results.

Google Inc said it will end the automatic redirection of users from its China portal within the next 24 to 48 hours, while Beijing kept silent on whether the move would allow Google to keep its China business.

Monsanto , the seed and chemical giant, is to issues third-quarter results.

A U.S. commission is planning to focus on the ties between Goldman Sachs Group Inc and American International Group Inc , and how derivatives transactions between the two financial giants may have contributed to the financial crisis.

The euro rebounded after two days of steep losses, but investors remained worried about the global recovery and concerned the European Central Bank may be pulling back emergency funds too quickly.

European banks are due to repay 442 billion euros to the European Central Bank on Thursday.

The pan-European FTSEurofirst 300 <.FTEU3> index of top shares was up 0.1 percent at 996.90 points by 0858 GMT, as investors picked up beaten down stocks after equities fell to a three-week closing low on Tuesday.

Japan's Nikkei average <.N225> closed down 2 percent at a key support level on Wednesday after hitting a seven-month low, booking its worst quarterly performance since the last quarter of 2008, after the Lehman Brothers collapse.

Investors fled the U.S. stock market on Tuesday and the S&P 500 tumbled to its lowest level in eight months in a sell-off triggered by a wave of increasing alarm over the global economic outlook.

The Dow Jones industrial average <.DJI> lost 268.22 points, or 2.65 percent, to 9,870.30. The Standard & Poor's 500 Index <.SPX> fell 33.33 points, or 3.10 percent, to 1,041.24. The Nasdaq Composite Index <.IXIC> dropped 85.47 points, or 3.85 percent, to 2,135.18.

(Reporting by Atul Prakash; Editing by Hans Peters)

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