By Steve Goldstein, MarketWatch LONDON (MarketWatch) -- U.S. stock futures traded lower on Wednesday, as a wave of generally better-than-forecast updates from companies outside of the financial sector was greeted with caution after seven gains in a row for blue chips and poorly received bank results. Futures veered between negative and steady territory throughout the morning. S&P 500 futures fell 7.5 points to 945.90 and futures on the Dow Jones Industrial Average declined 68 points. Futures on the Nasdaq 100 slipped 5 points to 1,549.00. "The market is holding up well," said Frank Lesh, a trader at FuturePath Trading in Chicago. "We are just in the beginning of earnings season, and the S&P 500 [was] at 950, right up on the yearly high. I don't see anything wrong with this." Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke is back on Capitol Hill on Wednesday, this time speaking in front of the Senate Banking Committee, after the central banker stressed the need for fiscal responsibility on Tuesday as he said the central bank wasn't close to changing its ultra-low interest-rate policy. Lesh said he wasn't too worried about Bernanke's economic outlook. "He didn't really go into green shoots mode, but I didn't find it that negative. He sounded a bit of caution and that's warranted." Several banks also were reporting results. Morgan Stanley (MS 26.30, -1.26, -4.57%) swung to a $1.26 billion loss, Wells Fargo (WFC 23.82, -1.53, -6.04%) reported a 47% profit rise, while the Bank of New York Mellon (BK 28.23, -0.88, -3.02%) reported a 43% profit fall. Morgan Stanley and Wells Fargo each dropped by between 3% and 6% in pre-market trade, and their results coincided with a downturn in stock futures. Drug sector results came in on the positive side, as Pfizer (PFE 15.43, -0.27, -1.72%) and Eli Lilly (LLY 34.75, +0.30, +0.87%) lifted earnings forecasts and GlaxoSmithKline (GSK 38.09, -0.05, -0.13%) edged past profit estimates. All three traded slightly higher to slightly lower. Boeing (BA 43.50, +0.48, +1.12%) also surpassed estimates, sending shares of the plane maker up 1.6% in pre-market action. Apple (AAPL 157.60, +6.09, +4.02%) rose 4% in pre-market trade after the company's 15% profit rise on surging iPhone sales and typically conservative guidance. Starbucks (SBUX 15.97, +1.28, +8.71%) climbed 9% after it swung to a stronger-than-forecast $151.5 million profit as store traffic improved. In Europe, the Dow Jones Stoxx 600 slipped 0.4%. Europe stocks had finished Tuesday at their highest level of the year. The Nikkei 225 gained 0.7%, however, with Toshiba among the advancers after Apple's results. September-dated oil futures fell over $1 a barrel ahead of weekly energy inventories figures, due at 10:30 a.m. Eastern time. The dollar declined 0.5% vs. the Japanese yen. Yields on 10-year Treasury bonds were steady at 3.48%.

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