Stocks peek up, look to advance

NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- Stocks were headed for a higher opening on Tuesday morning as investors reacted to Moody's saying it will maintain the United States' credit rating at triple-A. They also awaited the beginning of the two-day meeting of the Federal Reserve.

At 7:10 a.m. ET, Dow Jones industrial average, S&P 500 and Nasdaq 100 futures were all positive.

Futures measure current index values against perceived future performance and offer an indication of how markets may open when trading begins in New York.

"We have a little bit of a bounce, a very contained bounce, at the opening here," said Peter Cardillo, chief market economist for Avalon Partners. "Yesterday's decline was somewhat exaggerated."

Stocks sank Monday, ending at three-week lows, after the World Bank issued a bleak outlook on global growth and a sell off in commodity prices raised doubts about the prospects of an economic recovery. The World Bank also projected that worldwide trade will fall 10% this year.

Economy: Existing home sales for May are due out after the start of trade from the Census Bureau. Sales are expected to have risen to a 4.82 million unit annual rate.

Tuesday also brings a report on mass layoffs from the Labor Department. Mass layoffs refers to the number of layoff announcements involving at least 50 workers.

Meanwhile, investors are gearing up for a key meeting of the Federal Reserve, which begins Wednesday.

Companies: Tech bellwether Oracle (ORCL, Fortune 500) reports earnings after the close. It's expected to have earned 44 cents per share after earnings 47 cents a year ago.

International: Asian markets closed off almost 3%. European indexes were trading up slightly by mid-day GMT.

Oil and money: The price of oil, which hit two-week lows on Monday, fell 27 cents a barrel to $67.23. The dollar fell versus the euro and the yen but rose against the British pound.