By Steve Goldstein, MarketWatch
LONDON (MarketWatch) -- U.S. stock futures Wednesday pointed to a reversal of some of the previous session's strong gains, ahead of data on durable-goods orders as well as renewed worries about Europe's finances.
S&P 500 futures fell 4.2 points to 1,165.40 and Nasdaq 100 futures fell 6.25 points to 1,956.00. Futures on the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 28 points.
U.S. stocks rallied Tuesday, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average pouring on 102 points on optimism surrounding the economic recovery. Materials and industrials led the advance that was spread through all of the 10 major industry groups.
Wednesday's calendar features durable-goods orders and new-home sales for February.
Economists polled by MarketWatch expect orders growth to slow to 1.7% and for new-home sales to rise to 318,000 from 309,000. The durables data is due at 8:30 a.m. Eastern, and the new-home sales figures are due at 10.
The dollar was in ascendance Wednesday, notably against the euro (CUR_EURUSD 1.3354, -0.0140, -1.0375%) as traders looked past better-than-forecast German business conditions data to the apparent lack of support for a Greek rescue package ahead of Thursday and Friday's gathering of European leaders.
Fitch also downgraded the rating of Portugal to AA- from AA and kept the country's outlook on negative, hurting Portuguese stocks including Portugal Telecom (PT 11.30, +0.22, +1.99%) . See Portugal story.
The pound (CUR_GBPUSD 1.4961, -0.0073, -0.4869%) also was below $1.50 as Chancellor Alistair Darling is due to unveil the British budget, possibly for the last time.
Oil and gold futures weakened, with gold losing nearly $10 an ounce and oil futures down over $1 a barrel.
Companies in the spotlight include MF Global (MF 8.65, +1.33, +18.17%) , which jumped 18% in pre-market trade after naming ex-New Jersey governor and Goldman Sachs chairman Jon Corzine as chief executive.
Adobe Systems (ADBE 37.21, +1.99, +5.65%) rose nearly 6% after the design software producer's quarterly profit fall wasn't as steep as analysts had feared and as its second-quarter outlook also topped estimates.
Builder Lennar (LEN 17.70, +0.64, +3.75%) said it narrowed its quarterly loss as its backlog rose 34%.
ConocoPhillips (COP 52.13, -0.38, -0.73%) will be holding an analyst presentation. After the close, eBay (EBAY 27.05, -0.02, -0.07%) reports quarterly results. See eBay story.
European stocks turned lower after the Portugal downgrade. In Asia, strong earnings lifted stocks in Hong Kong and China, and Nintendo surged on plans for a new game console.
