By Mark DeCambre, MarketWatch

Home Depot's second-quarter results come in hotter than expected

U.S. stock-index futures on Tuesday appeared set to rebound, following the path of Europe's equity benchmarks, as worrisome declines in Turkey's currency moderated somewhat.

Wall Street also scored a boost from upbeat results from home-improvement giant Home Depot.

What are the benchmarks doing?

Futures for the Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 82 points, or 0.3%, at 25,296, those for the S&P 500 index advanced by .25 points, or 0.3%, at 2,833.75, and Nasdaq-100 futures climbed 30 points to reach 7,447, a rise of 0.4%.

On Monday (http://www.marketwatch.com/story/us-stocks-poised-to-come-under-pressure-as-turkey-weighs-on-global-markets-2018-08-13), the Dow shed 125.44 points, or 0.5%, to 25,187.70. The S&P 500 fell 11.35 points, or 0.4%, to 2,821.93, with energy and materials sectors among the biggest losers. The Nasdaq Composite Index finished down 19.40 points, or 0.3%, to 7,819.71. All three benchmarks on Monday drifted in and out of positive territory, pressured by seasonally low volumes and dogged by worries of contagion fears from the Turkish lira.

What's driving markets?

Market participants focused on signs that Turkey is trying to stem a tumble in its currency that has slashed a third of its value over the past two weeks alone. On Monday, Turkey's central bank pledged to provide "all the liquidity" the country's financial institutions needed.

It is unclear if that will be enough to address many of the economic challenges that Ankara faces under President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who has declined to lift interest rates as experts have recommended and who has threatened the independence of the central bank, while crossing swords with President Donald Trump over the detention of a evangelical U.S. pastor Andrew Brunson.

Read:Strategists see 4 ways out of Turkey's currency crisis (http://www.marketwatch.com/story/strategists-see-4-ways-out-of-turkeys-currency-crisis-2018-08-13)

Still, the lira found some runway higher as bulls, with some market participants speculating that Turkey's crisis are idiosyncratic and contained to the mostly Muslim country with a population of about 80 million. Turkish liras were up more than 5% against the U.S. dollar, with one dollar buying 6.5475 lira, compared with 6.8846 lira late Monday in New York.

What else is in focus?

The National Federation of Independent Business small-business optimism index (http://www.marketwatch.com/story/nfib-small-business-sentiment-climbs-in-july-to-second-highest-level-in-history-2018-08-14) rose 0.7 points in July to 107.9. The NFIB said it was the second-highest level in history and just under the 1983 peak.

A reading of the cost of imported goods (http://www.marketwatch.com/story/us-import-prices-rise-at-fastest-pace-in-6-12-years-2018-08-14) was flat in July, but the yearly rate of increase jumped to the highest level since February 2012, up an annualized 4.8%, the government said Tuesday. Excluding fuel, import prices dropped 0.3% last month and produced an annualized rise of 1.3%.

Looking further ahead, investors are awaiting a measure of household debt for the second quarter set to be released at 11 a.m. Eastern Time.

What are market participants saying?

"The Turkish Lira pulled back this morning, recovering some of the ground lost in the last few days, as the central bank pledged to inject foreign currency liquidity into the country's shaken banking system. A measure that seems, at least for now, to have stopped the bleeding, with the lira up 8% on the day [at its peak]," wrote Ricardo Evangelista, senior analyst at U.K. based online broker ActivTrades.

Which stocks are in focus?

Home Depot Inc.'s shares(HD) rose in premarket trade after the home-improvement giant reported second-quarter results that were better than average analysts' expectations.

Shares for Tesla Inc. (TSLA) were in focus after CEO Elon Musk late Monday said (http://www.marketwatch.com/story/elon-musk-says-hes-working-with-goldman-silver-lake-to-take-tesla-private-2018-08-13)in a tweet (https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1029171381584314368?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1029171381584314368&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.marketwatch.com%2Fstory%2Felon-musk-says-hes-working-with-goldman-silver-lake-to-take-tesla-private-2018-08-13) that he was working with Goldman Sachs and private-equity firm Silver Lake in the electric-car maker's go-private plan. A separate report indicated that Tesla had formed a special committee (http://www.marketwatch.com/story/teslas-board-forms-special-committee-to-evaluate-potential-going-private-deal-2018-08-14-8914050) to review take-private proposals, but didn't indicate that any specific deal was on the table.

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

August 14, 2018 08:52 ET (12:52 GMT)