Intel advances after third-quarter report; Bernanke speech to come By Steve Goldstein, MarketWatch LONDON (MarketWatch) -- U.S. stock futures pointed to a flat-to-weaker start Wednesday with several key economic reports on tap, though better-than-forecast results from Coca-Cola, Intel and J.P. Morgan Chase limited the downside. S&P 500 futures fell 5.6 points to 996.70 and Dow industrial futures fell 89 points, while Nasdaq 100 futures rose 6.5 points to 1,372.50 after a difficult day for technology stocks on Tuesday. The dollar fell vs. the Japanese yen, down 0.7% to 101.48 yen while oil futures fell $1.98 to $76.65 a barrel. U.S. stocks closed another volatile session on Tuesday with a fairly mild retreat, led by the technology sector as the Nasdaq Composite fell 65 points on the day the U.S. banking system was partly nationalized. The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 76 points and the S&P 500 fell 5 points. Wednesday's session will feature a flurry of economic releases, including retail sales for September, wholesale prices for September, a New York-area manufacturing poll for October, business inventories for August and the Fed's Beige Book of economic anecdotes. Most of the data is due for release at 8:30 a.m. Eastern, with inventories at 10 a.m. and the Beige Book at 2 p.m. "In the U.S., the deterioration in consumer confidence will likely weigh on retail sales as the tightening in credit conditions, turbulence in financial markets and rising unemployment lead to further weakness in consumer spending," said Bank of Scotland bond analysts. In addition, Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke will be speaking on the economic outlook and financial markets in a speech at 12:15 p.m. "The U.S. economy appears to be in a recession. This is not a controversial view, since the latest Blue Chip consensus projects that there will be three consecutive quarters of contraction in real GDP starting last quarter," said San Francisco Fed President Janet Yellen in a speech delivered late Tuesday. There were a number of earnings reports, particularly in the banking sector. J.P. Morgan Chase reported an 85% profit drop and Coca-Cola increased its profit by 14%, both of which were better than analysts had expected. Each stock rose over 4% in pre-open trade. Intel also rose 4% after it said its third-quarter profit rose 12% and gave a cautious outlook on the fourth quarter. "We do expect the shares to bounce on growth these better-than-feared results/guidance," said John Barton, an analyst at Cowen & Co. "We continue to believe, however, that a sustainable rally is not likely until investors can better estimate the magnitude of any post-holiday inventory overhang." Both Apple and International Business Machines were upgraded to overweight by J.P. Morgan, which also cut Dell to neutral. Apple and IBM both rose by about 1%. Overseas, the FTSE 100 fell sharply in London, dropping 3.1% as mining giant Rio Tinto said it slow its capital spending plans. Asia stocks were generally lower, with the Hang Seng losing over 5%, but the Nikkei 225 ended 1.1% higher in Tokyo.

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