U.S. stock futures were pointing to a higher open in what's promising to be a busy Wednesday with first-quarter gross domestic product, a decision from the Federal Reserve on interest rates and plenty of earnings to mull.
S&P 500 futures rose 7.6 points to 859.60 and Nasdaq 100 futures rose 11 points to 1,371.50. Dow industrial futures rose 67 points.
U.S. stocks fell Tuesday as worries over more capital injections for Bank of America and Citigroup in the wake of their "stress tests" trumped consumer-confidence data. The market has been fairly resilient to bank-solvency and health scares, but bulls are frustrated by a rally that has stalled out around 8,000 on the Dow Jones Industrial Average.
Overall, the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 8.05 points, or 0.10%, to 8,016.95, after being up nearly 70 points at one stage. The technology-oriented Nasdaq Composite fell 5.60 points and the broad Standard & Poor's 500 index fell 2.35 points.
Banks will stay in focus on Wednesday, with Bank of America due to hold a shareholder meeting at 10 a.m. Eastern, with a closely watched proxy vote that will decide whether beleaguered Chief Executive Ken Lewis keeps his board seat as chairman at the banking giant.
Morgan Stanley will hold its own shareholder meeting at 9 a.m. Eastern.
The economic calendar will take center stage on Wednesday with markets getting a first look at first-quarter real GDP. Analysts at RDQ Economics expect U.S. growth to show another large decline, despite an expected 1.25% increase in real consumer spending, which is about 70% of final demand.
At 2:15 p.m. Eastern, the Fed will release a policy statement after its two-day meeting. Analysts expect officials will go out of their way not to make any announcement or take any action that would disturb what they hope is a nascent recovery underway.
Also on the calendar will be the Treasury Department's quarterly refunding announcement. Market speculation has centered around whether the Treasury Department may issue a 50-year bond. See full story.
S&P 500 component Time Warner topped earnings estimates as it reported a decline in quarterly profit and stuck to its 2009 earnings outlook. Time Warner rose 3.5% in pre-market trade.
Aetna met estimates with a 1% rise in first-quarter net income, though the stock dropped about 4% in pre-market trade on concerns over costs.
Qwest Communications reported a 37% profit rise, lifting the stock close to 5%.
E-Trade Financial dropped 23% as it first-quarter loss widened and the company said it will raise more capital in a shareholder-dilutive way.
Starbucks reports after the close of trade.
Siemens Royal Dutch Shell Banco Santander and Sanofi-Aventis all topped estimates in Europe, with all of those shares trading higher, lifting the pan-European Dow Jones Stoxx 600 by 1%.
As the U.S. reported its first death from swine flu, many of the companies exposed to the crisis, like airlines Air France-KLM, rose in overseas trade.
In Asia, stocks were broadly higher as investors began to look past flu headlines, but trading was subdued amid a Japanese holiday.
Oil futures rose 88 cents a barrel ahead of weekly energy inventories data, the dollar was mixed against rivals, while yields on 10-year Treasury bonds edged up to 3.01%.
Bonds move in the opposite direction to prices.
