U.S. stock index futures signal slight gains

PARIS, Sept 25 (Reuters) - U.S. stock index futures pointed
to a slightly higher open on Wall Street on Tuesday, with
futures for the S&P 500 up 0.12 percent, Dow Jones
futures up 0.26 percent and Nasdaq 100 futures up 0.05
percent at 0750 GMT.
* European shares inched up in morning trade, reversing the
previous session's dip as hopes surrounding recent stimulus
measures from central banks offset simmering worries over the
global economy and Spain's reluctance to request a bailout that
would ease concerns about the euro zone debt crisis.
* Offering one of the clearest road maps yet for the Federal
Reserve's latest monetary stimulus, John Williams, a top Fed
policymaker, said on Monday he expects the central bank to
expand its bond-buying program next year and end it before the
close of 2014.
* Caterpillar Inc will be in focus after it cut its
2015 earnings forecast on Monday, warning of a
bigger-than-expected fall-off in demand for its products over
the next few years because of weaker commodity prices. It
stopped short of forecasting a global recession. The outlook cut
was reported minutes before Wall Street's closing bell. Its
shares traded in Frankfurt were down 2.9 percent.

* Google Inc started selling its Nexus 7 tablet in
Japan, deepening the competition with Sony Corp, the
Japanese hardware maker whose tablets also run on the world's
No.1 search engine's operating system.
* The French government has summoned Facebook Inc
managers to appear before the country's data watchdog to explain
how some of its users came to believe their privacy had been
infringed on the social network, it said in a statement early on
Tuesday.
* U.S. women's clothing retailer Wet Seal Inc
urged shareholders to reject activist investor Clinton Group's
efforts to replace four members of the board, saying its
candidates were better suited than Clinton's to lead the
company.
* Hewlett-Packard Co on Monday lost a legal bid to
expand its benefits from the research tax credit after the U.S.
Tax Court ruled the company could not exclude certain types of
income when calculating the tax break.
* Payroll processor Paychex Inc reported a
first-quarter profit that narrowly beat market estimates, helped
by higher revenue from its human resource services business.

* Tyco International Ltd agreed to pay $26.8 million
to resolve U.S. charges that it paid bribes to officials of
foreign governments and misreported such payments, in violation
of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act.
* A Chinese factory owned by iPhone assembler Foxconn
resumed production on Tuesday after a riot involving 2,000
workers had forced it to close for 24 hours, in an incident that
put Chinese labour conditions back under the microscope.

* Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway Inc said it
owns a 17 percent stake in U.S. broadcaster and publisher Media
General, as the conglomerate continues to boost its
investment in the newspaper industry.
* The union representing pilots at American Airlines said
that the airline wants to resume talks, signalling the company's
intent in resolving a stalemate with the association.

* Red Hat Inc, the world's largest distributor of
Linux operating software, reported a lower-than-expected
adjusted profit as costs rose, and lowered the top end of its
full-year revenue outlook on slow growth in its services
business.
* A New York-based investment fund that owns shares in U.S.
engineering company Shaw Group Inc, has demanded that a
special committee be set up to investigate Shaw's chairman for
potential conflicts of interest as he looks to sell the company
to Chicago Bridge & Iron Co for $3 billion.

* U.S. pension funds, charitable groups, endowments and
other large institutional investors are taking on more exposure
in non-traditional "alternative" investments -- such as private
equity and hedge funds -- to buffer against volatile stock
markets, an investor survey found on Tuesday.
* U.S. stocks edged lower on Monday as a disappointing
forecast from Caterpillar and weak German data increased
concerns that global growth may remain sluggish.
* The Dow Jones industrial average declined 20.55
points, or 0.15 percent, to close at 13,558.92 on Monday. The
Standard & Poor's 500 Index shed 3.26 points, or 0.22
percent, to 1,456.89. The Nasdaq Composite Index dropped
19.18 points, or 0.60 percent, to end at 3,160.78.