NEW YORK (AP) -- The U.S. stock market headed for a higher opening Tuesday as markets around the globe bounced back from the previous day's sell-off.
Stocks in Asia rose overnight, while all major European indexes gained in afternoon trading. Commodities like oil and gold rebounded as well, while the dollar lost ground against other major currencies.
The gains in stocks and commodities came as the Federal Reserve prepared for a two-day rate-setting meeting. Investors are hoping the Fed will offer up a clearer picture of the economic recovery, as well as some indication of when it may decide to raise interest rates. The Fed is widely expected to keep rates at their record low of near zero for the time being.
The market appears to be following a well established pattern - where brief selloffs are met with more buying as investors fear missing out on a continued rally. With stocks up more than 50 percent since bottoming in March, analysts have been forecasting a pullback, warning that uninterrupted gains are unsustainable. But for weeks, any dips in stocks have been moderate and short-lived.
"We haven't had a negative catalyst," said Art Hogan, chief market analyst at Jefferies & Co. "Reluctantly, investors are continually being dragged into a market that is finding a path of least resistance to the upside."
The consensus on Wall Street is that the economy, despite ongoing challenges like unemployment, is healing. But investors still have doubts over how strong the recovery will be, and whether the stock market's massive, nearly seven-month advance accurately reflects such a recovery.
On Tuesday, investors will also get more data on the housing industry when the Federal Housing Finance Agency releases its index on home prices in July.
Ahead of the market's open, Dow Jones industrial average futures rose 49, or 0.5 percent, to 9,767. Standard & Poor's 500 index futures gained 6.50, or 0.6 percent, to 1,066.90, while Nasdaq 100 index futures rose 10.25, or 0.6 percent, to 1,738.
In afternoon trading in Europe, Britain's FTSE 100 was up 0.9 percent, Germany's DAX index jumped 1.2 percent, and France's CAC-40 rose 0.8 percent.
Earlier Tuesday, Hong Kong's Hang Seng index added 1.1 percent. Japan's markets were closed for a public holiday.
The U.S. dollar index, which measures the greenback against a basket of foreign currencies, fell 0.7 percent. The dollar has weakened considerably this year amid record-low interest rates and unprecedented government spending designed to stimulate the economy.
Gold and silver prices rose after three days of declines, while oil prices gained $1.49 to $71.20 a barrel in premarket trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange.
Stocks sold off on Monday as the dollar rose ahead of the Fed meeting, sending shares of commodity companies lower. The Dow Jones industrials lost a modest 41 points after being down as much as 94 points earlier in the day.
After soaring 49 percent since hitting a 12-year low in early March, the Dow stands less than 300 points away from the 10,000 mark - a level the average first crossed in March 1999 and hasn't been above since October of last year.
Bond prices fell early Tuesday ahead of the latest round of government auctions. The yield on the benchmark 10-year Treasury note, which moves opposite its price, inched up to 3.51 percent from 3.49 percent late Monday.
