PARIS, March 5 (Reuters) - U.S. stock index futures pointed to a higher open on Wall Street on Tuesday, with futures for the S&P 500 up 0.23 percent, Dow Jones (DJI: ^DJI - news) futures up 0.21 percent and Nasdaq 100 futures up 0.3 percent at 1021 GMT.
* European shares gained ground in morning trade, with the benchmark index STOXX Europe 600 hitting its highest level since mid-2008, as investors bet major central banks will keep monetary policy loose at meetings this week.
* On the macro front, investors awaited February's U.S. ISM non-manufacturing index, due at 1500 GMT. Economists in a Reuters survey forecast a reading of 55.0 versus 55.2 in January.
* Markit's Eurozone Composite PMI, a broad gauge of activity at thousands of companies across the 17-nation bloc, fell to 47.9 in February from 48.6 in January. The reading was better than expected, although still below the 50 mark dividing growth from contraction.
* Tension over the U.S. fiscal crisis eased on Monday as President Barack Obama called more opposition lawmakers to find a way to stop $85 billion in damaging budget cuts and congressional Republicans announced a plan to prevent a government shutdown.
* BP (LSE: BP.L - news) , which lost its first deal to drill for oil in Russia's Arctic to ExxonMobil, tried to negotiate a new deal with Russian state oil company Rosneft and was again beaten to the punch by its U.S. rival.
* The U.S. Department of Justice is seeking additional details of AMR Corp and US Airways Group Inc's proposed $11 billion merger, which aims to create the world's largest airline.
* Japan's aviation regulators said on Tuesday there are still "several steps" required before any battery fix for Boeing Co's troubled Dreamliner jet can be approved. Boeing (NYSE: BA - news) said this week it was ready to make fixes to its batteries if regulators approve the proposed solution.
* General Motors Co and its China joint ventures sold 215,070 vehicles in the country in February, down 10.6 percent from a year earlier, the U.S. automaker said on Tuesday. GM makes vehicles in China in partnership with FAW Group and SAIC Motor Corp.
* Impax Laboratories Inc (NasdaqGS: IPXL - news) said U.S. health regulators raised fresh concerns related to manufacturing practices at the drugmaker's Hayward, California facility, sending its shares down more than 20 percent after the bell.
* U.S. stocks closed higher on Monday as investors staged a late-day rebound, extending a recent trend of buying on dips and pushing major indexes near all-time highs despite concerns about growth and China's housing market.
* The Dow Jones industrial average rose 38.16 points, or 0.27 percent, to 14,127.82 at the close. The Standard & Poor's 500 Index gained 7.00 points, or 0.46 percent, to 1,525.20. The Nasdaq Composite Index added 12.29 points, or 0.39 percent, to end at 3,182.03.
* The S&P 500 has jumped about 7 percent so far in 2013 as investors continue to view equities as more attractively valued than other asset classes, allowing stocks to resist calls for a pullback even with few obvious catalysts to drive shares definitively higher.
