US futures head higher ahead of econ conference

NEW YORK (AP) -- U.S. stock futures rose Tuesday as the world's economic leaders arranged an emergency conference in an attempt to unravel Europe's worsening debt crisis.

Dow Jones industrial average futures added 13 points to 12,076. Standard & Poor's 500 futures gained 1.5 points to 1,274.5 and Nasdaq futures rose 5 points to 2,474.

Finance ministers and central bank presidents of the world's seven wealthiest countries will hold an emergency conference call Tuesday to find a solution to Europe's economic woes. The talks are private, but officials say Washington expects more concrete action on Europe's banking system ahead of the meeting of the Group of 20 major economies in Los Cabos, Mexico, later this month.

Before the conference, the Spanish finance minister said that the amount of money that would be needed to prop up the nation's banking sector, which has become a priority for the European Union, is not excessively high. At the same time, Cristobal Montoro urged the EU to move quickly to create a banking union that would streamline the process for ailing banks that need help.

And in in Cyprus, Greece's central bank governor said the country is struggling to find $2.2 billion to inject into its second-largest lender, Cyprus Popular Bank, by June 30. That means it is increasingly likely to need EU rescue funds.

Germany's DAX retreated 1 percent to 5,922, while France's CAC-40 rose 0.4 percent to 2,967. Markets in London were closed for a second day for the Queen's Jubilee celebrations.

The euro fell back 0.6 percent to $1.2429.

Later Tuesday, economists expect the Institute for Supply Management to report that U.S. service companies, which employ roughly 90 percent of the workforce, expanded at the same rate in May as they had in April.

The service sector includes low-paying positions in retail and restaurants. But it also has higher-paying jobs in professions such as information technology, accounting and financial services.

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