By Polya Lesova, MarketWatch
LONDON (MarketWatch) — U.S. stock futures were mostly higher on Wednesday after the previous session’s selloff, as traders awaited data on the housing market and consumer prices.
Futures on the Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 20 points to 11,004 and S&P 500 futures rose 3.50 points to 1,178.20.
The blue-chip Dow index (DJIA 11,024, -178.47, -1.59%) dropped 178.47 points, or 1.6%, on Tuesday, posting its largest point and percentage drop since August 11.
Data on consumer prices and housing starts for October will be released at 8:30 a.m. Eastern time.
“Today’s U.S. CPI release will be very interesting (and important) given the Fed’s [Federal Reserve] concerns around the current low levels of inflation,” said strategists at Deutsche Bank in a note to clients.
In Europe, stocks traded higher, recovering slightly after the previous session’s rout, as investors continued to watch developments around Ireland’s financial crisis.
Irish authorities will meet with officials from the European Union, International Monetary Fund and European Central Bank to decide the best way to provide any necessary support to address market risks.
The Stoxx Europe 600 index (ST:STOXX600 266.74, +0.76, +0.29%) gained 0.3% in intraday trading.
The corporate calendar is fairly thin on Wednesday, with Target Corp. (TGT 53.79, -0.37, -0.68%) scheduled to report quarterly results. The retailer is expected to report third-quarter earnings of 68 cents a share, according to a survey by FactSet Research.
Shares of GlaxoSmithKline (GSK 38.54, -0.69, -1.76%) gained 2% in premarket trading following reports that a Food and Drug Administration panel backed approval of a new lupus drug jointly developed by Human Genome Sciences Inc. (HGSI 26.15, +0.27, +1.04%) and GlaxoSmithKline. Shares of Human Genome Sciences also rose 2% in premarket trading.
In the commodity markets, oil futures fell 80 cents to $81.54 a barrel in electronic trading on Globex. Gold futures dropped $4.30 to $1,334.10 an ounce.
The dollar was little changed against major rivals. The euro edged up 0.1% to $1.3493.
