A sharp sell-off on Friday made last week the worst for the S&P 500 since the sell-off in August.
And on Tuesday morning, stocks looked set to open higher, and possibly rally for a second straight day. Near 7:16 a.m. ET, Dow futures were up 141 points (0.8%), S&P 500 futures were up 16 points (0.81%), and Nasdaq futures were up 27 points (0.6%).
Global stock markets were also firmly higher, with major indexes across Europe including the CAC 40 in France and the DAX in Germany up by more than 2%.
Crude oil was rebounding from the lowest level in seven years after falling below $35 per barrel on Monday. West Texas Intermediate crude futures in New York rose 1% to as high as $37.10 a barrel.
As of Monday, Fed funds futures reflected about an 80% chance that the FOMC statement tomorrow would show a rate hike by 25 basis points.
Economic data due this morning include Empire State manufacturing, inflation via the consumer price index at 8:30 a.m. ET and home builder sentiment at 10 a.m.
In shares making noteworthy moves, Lumber Liquidators was up by as much as 21% pre-market, sustaining a surge after the market closed yesterday. The shares moved higher after short-seller Whitney Tilson, who publicly called out a formaldehyde problem with the company's laminate flooring, said in a Seeking Alpha column that he had covered his short because there were no "smoking gun" documents or emails.